| Description | "An astonishing true story of courage, love, and betrayal, told with the verve of a thriller. Freedland is a master at weaving spellbinding entertainments drawn from forgotten corners of history."—Mick Herron, bestselling author of Slow Horses From the New York Times bestselling author of The Escape Artist, an extraordinary true story of resistance, heroism and betrayal. When the whole world is lying, someone must tell the truth. Berlin, 1943: A group of high society anti-Nazi dissenters meet for a tea party one late summer’s afternoon. They do not know that, sitting around the table, is someone poised to betray them all to the Gestapo. They form a circle of unlikely rebels, drawn from the German elite: two countesses, a diplomat, an intelligence officer, an ambassador’s widow and a pioneering head mistress. What unites every one of them is a shared loathing of the Nazis, a refusal to bow to Hitler and the courage to perform perilous acts of resistance: meeting in the shadows, rescuing Jews or plotting for a future Germany freed from the Führer's rule. Or so they believe. How did a group of brave, principled rebels, who had successfully defied Adolf Hitler for more than a decade, come to fall into such a lethal trap? Undone from within and pursued to near-destruction by one of the Reich’s cruelest men, they showed a heroism in the face of the most vengeful regime in history that raises the question: what kind of person does it take to risk everything and stand up to tyranny?
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FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE ESCAPE ARTIST 'Magnificent . . . Important and impressive' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'Astonishing . . . Freedland is a master' MICK HERRON 'Remarkable . . . This is how the best history books will be written in the future' ANDREW ROBERTS 'Excellent . . . Perfect reading for this moment' ANNE APPLEBAUM 'Utterly gripping, brilliantly researched and written' ANTHONY HOROWITZ 'Compelling' MAX HASTINGS, SUNDAY TIMES 'Thrilling, humane, and deeply moving . . . Not to be missed' DAVID McCLOSKEY 'Totally gripping and timely' JONATHAN DIMBLEBY When the whole world is lying, someone must tell the truth. Berlin, 1943. A group of high-society anti-Nazi dissenters meet for a tea party one late summer afternoon. They do not know that, sitting around the table, is someone poised to betray them all to the Gestapo - revealing their secret to the Nazis' most ruthless detective. They form a circle of unlikely rebels, drawn from the German elite: two countesses, a diplomat, an intelligence officer, an ambassador's widow and a pioneering headmistress. Meeting in the shadows, rescuing Jews or plotting for a future Germany freed from the Führer's rule, what unites them is a shared loathing of the Nazis, a refusal to bow to Hitler and the courage to perform perilous acts of resistance. Or so they believe. How did a group of brave, principled rebels, who had successfully defied Adolf Hitler for more than a decade, come to fall into such a lethal trap? And who betrayed them? Undone from within and pursued to near-destruction by one of the Reich's cruellest men, they showed a heroism that raises a question with new urgency for our time: what kind of person does it take to risk everything and stand up to tyranny?
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A thrilling true story of courage, resistance and ultimately betrayal in the Third Reich captured by internationally bestselling author and prize-winning journalist Jonathan Freedland. The Traitors Circle tells the true, but scarcely known, story of a group of secret rebels against Hitler. Drawn from Berlin high society, they include army officers, government officials, two countesses, an ambassador's widow and a former model - meeting in the shadows, whether hiding and rescuing Jews or plotting for a Germany freed from Nazi rule. One day in September 1943 they gather for a tea party - unaware that one among them is about to betray them all to the Gestapo. But who is the betrayer of a circle themselves branded 'traitors' by the cruellest regime in history? In another page-turning work of nonfiction that reads like a thriller, Jonathan Freedland, acclaimed author of The Escape Artist, sheds light on one of the most dramatic episodes of the second world war, telling a story of courage, resistance and ultimate betrayal that has deep moral resonance for our own time, and asks what kind of person it takes to risk everything and stand up to tyranny. PRAISE FOR THE ESCAPE ARTIST: 'Thrilling' Daily Mail 'Gripping' Guardian 'Heartwrenching' Yuval Noah Harari 'Magnificent' Philip Pullman 'Excellent' Sunday Times 'Inspiring' Daily Mail 'An immediate classic' Antony Beevor 'Awe inspiring' Simon Sebag Montefiore 'Shattering' Simon Schama 'Utterly compelling' Philippe Sands 'A must-read' Emily Maitlis 'Indispensable' Howard Jacobson |
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