In the early 1980s, two men in their sixties are approached because of their pasts and asked to help bring a high-ranking SS officer to justice. Shlomo Liebovitz, an Israeli Pole, is flown to Europe by a loosely structured group of survivors that pursues Nazi war criminals and seeks revenge for the deaths of millions. Anton Epstein, a Czech doctor, is contacted by state authorities on behalf of the KGB. Their target is former Maj. Hans Lichtblau. Lichtblau ran a medical and scientific operation in East Prussia that cruelly inflicted wounds on prisoners and experimented with surgical techniques. It is believed that he slipped out of the war zone with the ingredients for a drug capable of enabling a soldier to fight for days without rest. The KGB wanted the drug, and Shlomo wanted revenge. The two men had been prisoners who labored as Lichtblau’s assistants. As the war wound down, Lichtblau, who had been born in America, was able to escape on the Vatican rat line and go to work for the U.S. Operation Paperclip, which employed German scientists. When the Russians came, Epstein headed south to Prague and Shlomo walked west. Two years later, Shlomo disembarked in Palestine. Together, they trail Lichtblau to Central America, and Shlomo lights up a cigar as he watches the Nazi die.
This is a superb novel that has made most of the best-of lists as the year ends. It deftly tells a complex tale and moves seamlessly between the war years and the pursuit of Lichtblau.
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