Kirkus
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Inspired by his Jewish German grandfather’s amazing story, Baerwald’s first novel devours the 20th century in all its horrors, international conspiracies, and dark secrets. Raised in an aristocratic family in Frankfurt, where antisemitism is rampant long before the rise of Nazism, Ernst Baerwald is a gifted young man—a violinist, linguist, and all-around intellect. His skills lead his powerful, connected father to push him into a life of “friendly” industrial espionage, following language training in Japan, as a fieldworker for the German chemical company IG Farben. Its top chemist, Fritz Haber, has devised a way to mass-produce ammonium nitrate, which, as fertilizer, holds the potential to ease world hunger. But of greater interest to Germany and other world powers and corporate interests is its capability in manufacturing gunpowder, bombs, and chemical weapons. Haber is a “dupe” for believing otherwise, thinks Ernst, who bears witness to the unthinkable violence and destruction that follow. Ernst spends many years in Japan, where he is held in a POW camp following Japan’s declaration of war against Germany in 1914. Subsequently, he leads a double life, continuing to work for Farben while collecting intel on Japanese industry and politics for U.S. intelligence director Allen Dulles and enjoying simultaneous romances with a Japanese costume designer he met in Italy and an intelligence agent in Japan, with whom he has an arranged marriage. At more than 600 pages, the novel boasts so many conflicts, characters, and locations that the reader may sympathize with a half-Japanese character with a family of mixed nationalities who says, “None of us quite knows who of us is at war with whom at breakfast.” It is likewise not always easy to distinguish between the factual and the fictional. But with its moral power, cinematic qualities, and deeply felt storytelling—one highlight is Ernst’s participation in a momentous performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at the POW camp—this is still quite an achievement. Baerwald, half of the 1980s pop-rock duo David & David, is off to a great start as a novelist. A boldly ambitious, richly populated saga. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.