Auschwitz, 1944. Alfred Mendl’s days are numbered. But he has little left to live for – his family were torn away from him, his life’s work burned in front of his eyes – until a glimmer of hope arises as he watches a game of chess. To the guards Mendl is just another prisoner, but in fact he holds knowledge that only two people in the world possess. The other is working hard for the Nazi war machine.
Four thousand miles away, in Washington, DC, intelligence lieutenant Nathan Blum decodes messages from occupied Poland. After the Nazis murdered his family, Nathan escaped the Krakow ghetto and is determined to support his new country – and the US government knows exactly how he can. They want to send Nathan on a mission to rescue one man from a place no one can break in to – or out of.
Even if Nathan does make it in and finds him, can they escape the most heavily guarded place on earth?
The One Man is a gripping story of heroism from master of the thriller genre Andrew Gross.
Who saves a life World War II ended 70 years ago, and yet the Nazis and the atrocities they committed remain at the forefront of our literary if not social consciousness, with some of the biggest books of recent years focused on that era. I can’t say I fully understand the collective fascination with this particularly abhorrent chapter in history (I have a few theories) but I have become an avid consumer of books on the subject, mostly non-fiction but fiction too. I keep trying to make sense of the long-ago…
Suspenseful Superb Book It was May 1944 and two escapees from Auschwitz, Rudolph Vrba and Alfred Wetzler brought out documents with names, numbers and the stories of mass liquidation of Jews and others. This information had reached President Roosevelt and his staff, especially William Donovan and Peter Strauss. Donovan was chief spymaster and head of the office of Strategic Services. The news was grim. The camps were expanding and speeding up the pace of exterminations. The US needed to build a weapon of great…
The One Man is a must, must, treasure of a read! It has been a few books since I have read anything by this author. Yet, Mr. Gross is still one of my favorites to read. In fact, just the other day I was talking books and authors with one of my friends and I told her to check out this author. This book is a slight departure from the typical books that I have read by Mr. Gross with his mystery/suspense thrillers. I like this side of Mr. Gross. In addition, this book takes place in one of my favorite time periods. Instantly, I was captivated by…