Europe, 1937. André Szara, a Polish-born Jewish journalist for the Soviet newspaper Pravda, travels between Moscow, Paris, Berlin and Prague while carrying out assignments for the NKVD. Ordered to cultivate a German industrialist whose company supplies strategically important metal wire, Szara enters a world in which commercial information, military planning and personal vulnerability are inseparable.
As Stalin’s purges destroy colleagues and patrons, Szara attempts to protect both himself and other endangered Jews by trading intelligence through unofficial channels. His work carries him toward the German attack on Poland and exposes the bargains made by states that publicly claim incompatible principles. The novel uses a compromised professional observer to examine Soviet coercion, Nazi expansion and the narrowing space for independent action before the war.
Jacqueline Winspear
20 books
James R. Benn
26 books