Published 2017, 303 pages
This is another historical novel by the author of Dictator (previously reviewed). It’s about two former Oxford classmates, one English, one German, who now work for their respective governments in the days before a last ditch effort to avert war, the Munich Agreement. Legat, the Englishman, works in the diplomatic corp as private secretary to Chamberlain. His former friend, Hartman, is a staff member in the German Foreign Office. Though the two young men were close during their Oxford years, they haven’t contacted each other in several years. The story gives many interesting details about Chamberlain’s efforts, and the reasoning behind them, to keep the fragile peace between Germany, England, France and Czechoslovakia. Through indirect channels both Hartman and Legat are brought together again during the meeting in Munich between Chamberlain and Hitler. Despite their countries being at the brink of war, the two realize that they have always remained friends. An interesting history of what might have been.