The Traitors Circle

By (author) Freedland Jonathan
Short description/annotation:
A thrilling true story of courage, resistance and ultimately betrayal in the Third Reich captured by internationally bestselling author and prize-winning journalist Jonathan Freedland.
Description:

When the whole world is lying, someone must tell the truth.

Berlin, 1943. A group of high-society anti-Nazi dissenters meet for a tea party one late summer afternoon. They do not know that, sitting around the table, is someone poised to betray them all to the Gestapo - revealing their secret to the Nazis'' most ruthless detective.

They form a circle of unlikely rebels, drawn from the German elite: two countesses, a diplomat, an intelligence officer, an ambassador''s widow and a pioneering headmistress. Meeting in the shadows, rescuing Jews or plotting for a future Germany freed from the Führer''s rule, what unites them is a shared loathing of the Nazis, a refusal to bow to Hitler and the courage to perform perilous acts of resistance. Or so they believe.

How did a group of brave, principled rebels, who had successfully defied Adolf Hitler for more than a decade, come to fall into such a lethal trap? And who betrayed them?

Undone from within and pursued to near-destruction by one of the Reich''s cruellest men, they showed a heroism that raises a question with new urgency for our time: what kind of person does it take to risk everything and stand up to tyranny?

PRAISE FOR THE ESCAPE ARTIST:

''Thrilling'' Daily Mail
''Gripping'' Guardian
''Heartwrenching'' Yuval Noah Harari
''Magnificent'' Philip Pullman
''Excellent'' Sunday Times
''Inspiring'' Daily Mail
''An immediate classic'' Antony Beevor
''Awe inspiring'' Simon Sebag Montefiore
''Shattering'' Simon Schama
''Utterly compelling'' Philippe Sands
''A must-read'' Emily Maitlis
''Indispensable'' Howard Jacobson

Review quote:
Haunting and heart-poundingly suspenseful - an extraordinary exploration of moral courage in a world overwhelmed by Nazi darkness. Freedland''s passionate narrative takes us into secret and sometimes surprising corners of Hitler''s Germany. In those shadows of vicious totalitarianism and betrayal - and facing the abyss of the Holocaust - is a circle of friends who embody unwavering human decency and faith and love. Freedland''s powerful story-telling has intense resonance in today''s darkening world. The moral questions are eternal
Review quote:
A story of unlikely rebels who had much to lose from resisting the Nazi regime, which so many of their peers supported. What made them trade personal safety for moral rectitude? Freedland''s answer is as tense as a thriller yet perceptive, thoughtful and thoroughly researched. It made me think long after I''d turned the last page
Review quote:
Written like a novel, this tale of heroism, camaraderie, betrayal and tragedy will leave a lasting impression. It is a salutary reminder that history can inspire, even in the darkest of times
Review quote:
An astonishing true story of courage, love and betrayal, told with the verve of a thriller. Freedland is a master at weaving spellbinding entertainments drawn from forgotten corners of history
Review quote:
The Traitors Circle rivals Freedland''s superb The Escape Artist. A revelatory account of heroism and treachery in Nazi Germany, it based on original research and reads like a thriller. Totally gripping and timely
Review quote:
Though every word is true, this remarkable book reads like a novel. Part thriller, part adventure story, part Holocaust history, it is a searing memorial to the hal