Author:Andrew Rosenheim
1942: THE RACE IS ON TO CREATE THE ATOMIC BOMB.
James Nessheim has gone back to college and thinks he has left his life as a spy behind.
But the covert nuclear programme at the University of Chicago has been infiltrated by an enemy agent, and Nessheim is persuaded by the FBI to help track him down.
At the same time, an old flame re-enters Nessheim’s life and he finds himself falling in love. But can it be coincidence that she appears just as he becomes a special agent again?
Nessheim’s personal and professional lives grow dangerously intertwined as he struggles to protect the war’s deadliest secret – and work out who he can trust.
There is much to praise in this complex and ambitious narrative, not least the adroitly handled ticking-clock scenario
—— Barry Forshaw , Financial TimesOutstanding ... combines a crackerjack plot and multiple nuanced characters with a convincing portrayal of WWII America ... The dramatic twists work to propel the plot to a powerful and moving conclusion.
—— Publishers WeeklyTaut with suspense ... a compelling novel.
—— Historical Novel SocietyOne of the great First World War novels, about a German soldier in a French village, who falls in love with it. It’s full of criticism of how the war was conducted by Germany, so when Hitler came in, it was burnt.
—— Michael Morpurgo , Daily MailThe best of German war books so far
—— J. B. PriestleySchlump…was considered anti-nationalistic, anti-heroic, philanthropic, pacifist, pro-French, humanistic, European, quite good-humoured and well-written. A bright book from a dark time… The book burners were completely right: an un-German book
—— Frankfurter Allgemeine ZeitungGrimm’s major achievement is his ability to balance such unsentimental accounts of people’s wartime sufferings alongside the unfailing delight of Schlump’s gauche charm
—— New Books in GermanA thoroughly unconventional First World War novel, part fable, part documentary […] non-nationalistic, Francophile, astute, romantic and accurate
—— FAS[Grimm] combines elements of the picaresque with all the bleakness of First World War literature
—— Stuttgarter Zeitung