In the years between Germany's defeat in World War I and the reign of
the Nazis, the underground clubs and cabarets of Berlin pulsed with the
frenetic energy of rebellion. Suspended on the precipice of global
catastrophe, a young counterculture emerged in the Weimar capital,
where--if only for a moment--races and religions mixed, jazz music
resounded, and liquor flowed in abundance. In Harold Nebenzal's daring,
suspenseful novel Café Berlin, this high-flying scene forms the backdrop
for a thrilling tale of love and the universal human yearning to be
free, even under the yoke of totalitarianism. Daniel Saporta is a young
Jewish immigrant from Damascus, who comes to Berlin in search of fame,
fortune, or at least a good party. He begins a tumultuous love affair
with Samira, an exotic dancer secretly under the employ of British
Intelligence. When Samira uncovers a conspiracy involving Adolf Hitler
and the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Daniel is drawn inexorably into an
underground world of espionage, sex, and dire political stakes.
Presented as a series of diary entries written years later, while Daniel
is in hiding during the war, Café Berlin recounts his fleeting memory of
the club and the German society now laid waste by the war. First
published by Overlook to great acclaim in 1991, Café Berlin is available
once again, offering an incredible story of decadence and defiance
during Nazi Germany's rise to power.
