Dr. B. A novel

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. (May)

DEBUT Birnbaum, the former director of Stockholm's Museum of Modern Art, was inspired by his grandfather's life to craft an absorbing first novel about World War II. At the outset of the war, Stockholm rivaled Casablanca as a bastion of political intrigue. Immanuel Birnbaum, a German-Jewish journalist who writes under the pen name Dr. B., has come there as a refugee with his young family. He survives by writing for a Swiss newspaper and provincial German papers less scrutinized by the Nazis and develops a varied circle of acquaintances, among them an English businessman who has recently and somewhat oddly published a book on Swedish mining with a prestigious British literary publisher. Immanuel is mysteriously solicited to provide political information--via letters written in invisible ink--to people apparently tied to his publisher in Germany. The real purpose of the letters is different, however; an anti-Nazi plot is exposed when Immanuel's first letter is intercepted by Swedish postal authorities, and he is arrested along with several British agents. But who betrayed him? VERDICT This complexly plotted, fact-based tale filled with shadowy characters and unlikely coincidences is an altogether engaging piece of literary historical fiction.--Lawrence Rungren

At the beginning of World War II, a man is overcome by historical forces. Stockholm in 1939 is a crossroads of all sorts of influences: Swedish National Socialists organize and march against Jewish university professors; anti-Nazi Germans, especially Jews, have fled there, perhaps to organize more definitive escapes from Europe; and representatives both covert and credentialed of the European powers move through the various corridors of power. Into this farrago comes Immanuel Birnbaum, a German Jewish political reporter exiled and living in Warsaw, who has made his way with his family to Sweden in the fall of 1939. He has been writing for the Swiss Basler Nachrichten and as "Dr. B." has placed articles in smaller German publications, and this and a few other coincidental circumstances make him an object of interest to several conflicting forces. On the one hand, through the press service that places Dr. B.'s articles, he is pressured to report to German intelligence, while on the other he is affiliated with an English cadre, some of whom are involved in sabotage. These, in combination with Immanuel's already-conflicted situation as a Jew and a German and his desire to be a good employee and temporary resident of Sweden, create a situation which almost literally eats him up. The author is a descendant of the historical Dr. B., and the novel follows the facts of his life and incorporates historical characters into a very accomplished and appealing portrait of Stockholm. Told in leisurely detail and sometimes perhaps a bit too discursive, the book may be short of action for some, but those who persist will be rewarded. A moving evocation of a life beset by conflicts in a troubled time. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.