A historical novel set between the haunting beauty of postwar Quebec and the ravaged cities of wartime Europe, this novel explores identity, betrayal, and the uncomfortable truths hidden beneath family silence.
In 1975, Nadja, a sharp-witted Ph.D. student researching looted art, believes she was raised Catholic. After discovering a dusty briefcase of newspaper clippings in her parents' home in Quebec City, her father's past begins to unravel-and with it, her understanding of herself. Nathaniel, once a journalist in Nazi-occupied Paris and Budapest, survived by walking a treacherous tightrope: to the Jews, he passed as one of their own; to the collaborators, he passed as loyal.
In his shadow, Nadja begins to question: What did he do during the war-and what did he trade to survive?
Her father had warned her not to go whoring after strange idols--Deuteronomy.
As her academic investigation deepens, she uncovers ties between her father and a mysterious German named Heinrich Leopold von Bismarck, a man whose angelic face concealed a far more complicated allegiance. Together, the two men once smuggled looted paintings out of Europe-and tried, in their own compromised ways, to save what they could. But what price did they pay?
Blending real historical figures and lesser-known Holocaust events-including the complicity of Jewish leaders, and two Jewish art dealers who procured Old Masters for Hermann G ring. The laundering channels of the French Foreign Legion, and the buried scandals of postwar restitution-The Rabbit With Two Faces challenges readers to confront the moral grey zones of survival. --With 133 scholarly references to distinguish between myth, opinion, and historical facts.
Related Subjects
History