Dr. B.
A Novel
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This illuminating debut from the former director of the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm delves into the tumultuous and imperiled lives of German Jewish expatriates living in Sweden on the eve of WWII. After journalist Immanuel Birnbaum, a character based on the author's grandfather, is denied the right to publish in Nazi Germany, he files dispatches from his adopted country under the byline Dr. B. for publication in both Swedish and German papers. Over the course of the episodic narrative, Immanuel links up with fellow expatriates who publish Thomas Mann, Stefan Zweig, and other writers suppressed by the Nazis. The plot thickens when he reluctantly agrees to write for a German press agency "behind-the-scenes reporting" on clandestine activities unfolding in Stockholm's diplomatic world, resulting in a fraught showdown with local authorities. Birnbaum skillfully delineates the social and political tensions shaping a culture caught between the national interests of Germany and Russia, and he poignantly conveys the plight of individuals for whom each day is a potential tragedy waiting to happen. This auspicious debut makes for an appealing drama.
