The lilac people A novel

Todd debuts with a stirring chronicle of trans and gay trailblazers in Weimar Germany who were persecuted by the Nazis. In 1933 Berlin, Berthold "Bertie" Durchdenwald, an assistant at the progressive Institute for Sexual Science, is proud to receive his purple "transvestite card," which lets him live openly as a trans man. But his rights rapidly erode as the Nazis rise to power, raiding the city's gay clubs and torching the Institute. Bertie and his lover, Sofie Hönig, flee to a farm in Ulm, where they hide for the duration of the war. During the Allied occupation, they find a trans man named Karl Fuchs collapsed in their field. He tells them that he was imprisoned at Dachau and is now fleeing from the Allies who are jailing gay and trans people. Facing continued discrimination, the trio decide to immigrate to the U.S. To do so, however, Bertie and Karl must hide their hard-earned identities. In one particularly poignant scene, Bertie burns their photo albums and transvestite cards, while bitterly reflecting on the Nazis' book burning and destruction of evidence pertaining to the Holocaust. In Todd's hands, this vital chapter of LGBTQ+ history comes to life, as the characters find a means to survive through found family. This timely historical drama hits hard. Agent: Sarah Bedingfield, Levine Greenberg Rostan. (Apr.)