Dr. B.

High recommendation. A fascinating book that reads like a 40s noir film. Each chapter sets a staged location brimming with ambiance and meaning, each a little play in itself, as well as slowly moving ahead the thoroughly ambiguous story of Dr. B., a Jewish German journalist who fled Poland with his family for “neutral” Stockholm in the years before all-out war. The name dropping of actual political figures, spies, and authors will have you raising your eyebrows, because it's real. A novelization of the author's grandfather's actual life during that time, literally discovered in a box of memoirs after his death. It gets you throughly into the experience of a man clearly desperate to protect his family by any means, yet rejected by the nation and culture that is inextricably part of him. My favorite is an early scene in a church, again worthy of a noir film (in fact, it recalls Hitchcock), mysterious and nearly surreal. Rich scenes, rich characterizations, a novel well worth seeking out.