The former director of the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm makes his
literary debut with this dramatic and riveting novel of book publishing,
émigrés, spies, and diplomats in World War II Sweden based on his
grandfather's life.
In 1933, after Hitler and the Nazi Party consolidated power in Germany,
Immanuel Birnbaum, a German Jewish journalist based in Warsaw, is
forbidden from writing for newspapers in his homeland. Six years later,
just months before the German invasion of Poland that ignites World War
II, Immanuel escapes to Sweden with his wife and two young sons.
Living as a refugee in Stockholm, Immanuel continues to write,
contributing articles to a liberal Swiss newspaper in Basel under the
name Dr. B. He also begins working as an editor for the legendary German
publisher S. Fischer Verlag. Gottfried Bermann Fischer had established
an office in Stockholm to evade German censorship, publishing celebrated
German writers such as Thomas Mann and Stefan Zweig.
Immanuel also becomes entangled with British intelligence agents who
produce and distribute anti-Nazi propaganda in Stockholm. On orders from
Winston Churchill, the Allied spies plan several acts of sabotage. But
when the Swedish postal service picks up a letter written in invisible
ink, the plotters are exposed. The letter, long a mystery in military
history accounts, was in fact written by Dr. B. But why would a Jew
living in exile and targeted for death by the Nazis have wanted to tip
them off?
Daniel Birnbaum's novel will intrigue readers with its fascinating
portrayal of the astonishing connections and often mysterious players
illuminated by his grandfather's remarkable wartime life.
