In the dark of night, during a turbulent storm, Rudolf Braverman is awakened by brutal pounding on his door. He opens his eyes and is stupefied to find out that he is in bed, in an unknown room. Where is he? And how did he get here? Heavy fists are hammering on the door and strident voices keep shouting in German: Offnen! Polizei! Why are they shouting in German? Braverman, a World War Two hero, has left Germany sixty years ago and sworn never to come back. Is this for real or a nightmare? He shakily makes it to the window, pulls the heavy curtain – and sees the Brandenburg Gate. He is in Berlin!
Braverman is stunned. Last night he went to sleep in London. How did he get to Berlin? The police officers break the door and an inspector steps toward him. “Herr Braverman, you are under arrest for the murder of five German citizens, on April fifteen, nineteen forty-six.”
This is the opening scene of the new novel by Michael Bar-Zohar. The amazing, riveting plot combines reality and imagination, evolves in Berlin’s snowbound alleys, London’s MI-6 safehouses, the White House Oval Office, and revives a bloody, violent past. Step by step, the reader discovers a devious conspiracy, rooted in the Third Reich’s last days – and casting its dark shadow on today’s new dangers.