The Second Son: A Novel (Detective Inspector Nikolai Hoffner) - Hardcover

Rabb, Jonathan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0374299137 ISBN 13: 9780374299132

Publisher: Sarah Crichton Books, 2011

Synopsis

An Intriguing Historical Thriller Set in the Barcelona of the Spanish Civil War


 

On the eve of Hitler’s Olympics, Chief Inspector Nikolai Hoffner, a half Jew, has been forced out of the Kriminalpolizei. Luckily, Hoffner’s focus is elsewhere. His son Georg is missing in Spain, swept up in the sudden outbreak of the civil war. He has already lost Sascha, his elder son, who is fully entrenched in the Nazi regime. But Georg is not what he appears to be, and when Hoffner discovers this, he is determined to save the one son he can.

 

The Second Son is the eagerly awaited final installment in Jonathan Rabb’s Berlin trilogy, set between the two world wars. In Harper’s Magazine, John Leonard called the first, Rosa, “a ghostly noir that could have been conspired at by Raymond Chandler and André Malraux.” The second, Shadow and Light (2009), garnered rave reviews—in The Washington Post, Wendy Smith praised its “atmosphere” and “brilliantly plotted narrative.” Now, nearly ten years after the events of Shadow and Light, Hoffner finds himself tossed into the chaos that is Spain— where he quickly meets anarchists, Soviet and British secret agents, and a female doctor called Mila Pera—as he follows a trail of clues left by Georg.

 

In the spirit of Joseph Kanon and Alan Furst—whose Foreign Correspondent also took place in the mountains of Spain—Rabb delivers another atmospheric work, rich with his storytelling talent and historical expertise.

About this title

About the Author

Jonathan Rabb is the author of four previous novels: Shadow and Light, Rosa, The Overseer, and The Book of Q. He lives in Savannah, Georgia, with his wife and twin children.

Reviews

Set in 1936, Rabb's gripping conclusion to his Berlin noir trilogy featuring Chief Insp. Nikolai Hoffner (after Rosa and Shadow and Light) finds the 62-year-old Hoffner forced into retirement because the Nazis have discovered that his late mother was Jewish. Meanwhile, Hoffner's filmmaker second son, Georg, has left his wife and son in Berlin to travel to Barcelona, where the People's Olympics, games intended to protest the spectacle of Hitler's Olympics, are scheduled to take place. But the outbreak of civil war in Spain ensures that these alternative games never happen. Letters that Georg pens to his wife describing the conflicting factions—well-organized Fascists on the right, a motley array of socialists and anarchists on the left—will resonate with admirers of George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia. After Georg goes missing, Hoffner embarks on a dangerous and perhaps quixotic search to bring his son safely home. Fans of Alan Furst and Philip Kerr will be rewarded. (Feb.)
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*Starred Review* Matters have taken a decided turn for the worse for former German police detective Nikolai Hoffner since the events described in Shadow and Light (2009). Sacked from the police because his dead mother was Jewish, Hoffner is living with his daughter-in-law in 1936 Berlin and bemoaning the fates of his two sons. Journalist Georg, the younger son, has disappeared after traveling to Barcelona to cover the People�s Olympics, an alternative event staged to protest Hitler�s Olympics. With his elder son, Sascha, a committed Nazi, Hoffner is determined not to lose his second son and embarks on a dangerous trek to civil war-torn Spain in hopes of rescuing Georg. The chaos of the war provides an evocative backdrop for this unlikely, noir-tinged story of a cynical father chasing after his idealistic son��an old German with no politics and a young Jew with no sense.� This is anything but an inspirational father-son novel. Nikolai�s own sense of personal futility is echoed perfectly by the absurdity of the war: �The world has never been so ready to declare its allegiances. They�ll all be shipping themselves into Spain by the truckload in the next weeks, every one of them with his arm raised in whatever salute suits him best. It�s a terrible thing to know how pointless it�s all going to be.� Yes, this is Alan Furst territory, but it will also resonate for readers of European antiwar fiction, from All Quiet on the Western Front to The Good Soldier Schweik. --Bill Ott

Edition details

• Publisher: Sarah Crichton Books
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0374299137
• ISBN 13: 9780374299132
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304