I could make this my shortest review ever for Fresh Fiction: I
think Andrew Gross' THE ONE MAN is the best thriller ever
written about the Second World War and just say: you must read
it!
Nathan Blum had escaped Poland, while his family was killed by
the Nazis, and Nathan eventually made it to the United States,
where he enlisted, and because of his knowledge of several
languages, he was drafted into intelligence. It is 1944, the
race for the atom bomb is on, and it has come to the ears of
the Americans that one Doctor Alfred Mendl, who was last seen
in Auschwitz, could have crucial knowledge on making the bomb.
An operation is undertaken to get Mendl out of the death camp
by having an agent infiltrate Auschwitz and take Mendl to Los
Alamos. All previous undertakings had failed, then Nathan is
asked because of his skills; it is a desperate operation which
has not much hope of succeeding, but Nathan is determined to
see it to the end, because he feels he should not have
abandoned his family, he should have gone back to Poland, and
he so he will return.
A story of the scope of THE ONE MAN, as far as I'm concerned,
must be based on a solid background, and Andrew Gross'
research
is so thorough that, by page fifteen I had learned things I
ignored about that era, and I was completely enthralled. I
admit that by chapter seven, I looked at the Author's Note
which surprisingly only confirmed my respect for Mr. Gross. He
admits to taking two minuscule historical liberties, with which
I had no problem whatsoever, and I am a stickler for historical
accuracy. I will also say that I barely breathed for around
three hundred and fifty pages, because I honestly have never
read such an electrifying novel; I think I was nearly vibrating
with excitement throughout.
Mr. Gross merges historical figures with fictional characters
with absolute confidence, his writing is flawless, the pace is
relentless, and the characters are positively extraordinary:
Nathan, Leo, Dr. Mendl, Greta, Leisa, Ackermann, Franke, Anja,
Rozen -- and I am not telling who they are; some are good, some
are despicable, and they are all so fully-fleshed, they became
living and breathing entities to me. Andrew Gross' scrupulous
attention to historical detail makes every facet of THE ONE MAN
chillingly realistic: every aspect of the mission, the death
camps, the behavior of the Nazis, the inmates; this is what
makes a work of historical fiction into literary reality. As
Andrew Gross points out, much of this book is based on facts,
except for Nathan's story itself, the infiltration and
retrieval operation. The author demonstrates an innate talent
for impeccable pacing and creating tension that grips you and
never lets go, and some tiny details made my heart wrench,
"Schubert", was one of those unforgettable moments as well as
the piece of sheet music; those are what make a great book into
a classic. If John Le Carré is the master of Cold War
thrillers, WWII belongs to Andrew Gross. I have not found the
precise word for how I feel about THE ONE MAN, except that it
is one of the greatest thrillers of all time.
Poland. 1944. Alfred Mendl and his family are brought on a
crowded train to a Nazi concentration camp after being
caught trying to flee Paris with forged papers. His family
is torn away from him on arrival, his life’s work burned
before his eyes. To the guards, he is just another prisoner,
but in fact Mendl—a renowned physicist—holds knowledge that
only two people in the world possess. And the other is
already at work for the Nazi war machine.
Four thousand miles away, in Washington, DC, Intelligence
lieutenant Nathan Blum routinely decodes messages from
occupied Poland. Having escaped the Krakow ghetto as a
teenager after the Nazis executed his family, Nathan longs
to do more for his new country in the war. But never did he
expect the proposal he receives from “Wild” Bill Donovan,
head of the OSS: to sneak into the most guarded place on
earth, a living hell, on a mission to find and escape with
one man, the one man the Allies believe can ensure them
victory in the war.
Bursting with compelling characters and tense story lines,
this historical thriller from New York Times
bestseller Andrew Gross is a deeply affecting, unputdownable
series of twists and turns through a landscape at times
horrifyingly familiar but still completely new and compelling.
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