The Soul of a Thief: A Novel of World War II - Softcover

Hartov, Steven

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1335994688 ISBN 13: 9781335994684

Publisher: Hanover Square Press, 2019

Synopsis

A moving, lyrical novel of survival behind the front lines of occupied France, inspired by a remarkable but little-known detail of World War II history.

Shtefan Brandt, serving in Hitler’s SS, has made it through the war in spite of two secrets that are far more dangerous than the battlefield. First, he is a Mischling, one of the thousands of German citizens of Jewish descent who avoided the death camps by concealing themselves in the ranks of the German army. And second, he is in love with Gabrielle Belmont, his commanding officer’s French mistress.

As the war’s end looms on the horizon, Shtefan’s commander hatches a plot to escape Europe and fund a new life with a stolen fortune. A fortune that Shtefan, in turn, plans to steal from him...

About this title

About the Author:

STEVEN HARTOV is the coauthor of the New York Times bestseller In the Company of Heroes, as well as The Night Stalkers and Afghanistan on the Bounce. For six years he served as Editor-in-Chief of Special Operations Report. He has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, FOX, and most recently the History Channel’s Secret Armies. A former Merchant Marine sailor, Israeli Defense Forces paratrooper and special operator, he is currently a Task Force Commander in the New York Guard. He lives in New Jersey.

Review:

“An old-fashioned ‘ripping yarn’ from a master writer who knows how to keep the characters vivid, the plot twisting, and the action coming hot and heavy.” —Steven Pressfield, author of Gates of Fire

“Steven Hartov takes us on an SS commando’s headlong rush across German-occupied Europe from France to the battlefield of Russia and back again just in time for D-day, in the company of a brutally efficient SS-colonel and his decidedly non-Aryan adjutant. Hartov tells a story about Nazis and Jews on the same side of the front lines that few could have conceived but the likes of which had to have happened. Between the spring of 1943 and the summer of 1944 The Soul of a Thief packs a lifetime of human experiences into a year of European wartime.” —Alex Rosenberg, author of The Girl from Krakow

“The Soul of a Thief is a war drama, a cat-and-mouse thriller and a coming-of-age love story, all wrapped into a terrific and compulsive read. Hartov offers a novel and human perspective of the German side of the Second World War through the eyes of one young reluctant recruit and the enigmatic colonel whom he admires, fears and, ultimately, plots to outwit.” —Daniel Kalla, bestselling author of The Far Side Of the Sky and Nightfall Over Shanghai

“Steven Hartov's WWII novel The Soul of a Thief is a literary tour de force on par with Mark Sullivan's Beneath a Scarlet Sky for three simple reasons: he knows his history, he writes with the beauty of Fitzgerald, and he loves his characters. This is an outstanding historical fiction novel illuminating a little-known aspect of the German war machine: the half- and quarter-Jews known as Mischlinge fighting, sometimes willingly, on behalf of Hitler's Third Reich." —Samuel Marquis, author of Bodyguard of Deception and Altar of Resistance

“Rich...the wealth of details about the Mischlinge makes for an engrossing account of a lesser-known side of the war.” —Publishers Weekly 

“A fast-moving plot and vivid characters make this a most satisfying read.” —Kirkus Reviews

About this edition

• Publisher: Hanover Square Press
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 1335994688
• ISBN 13: 9781335994684
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304