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.
