Richard Zim­ler (The Last Kab­bal­ist of Lis­bon, The War­saw Ana­grams) brings read­ers anoth­er riv­et­ing sto­ry. This one is set in Berlin in 1932. Hitler and his Nazis are gain­ing pop­u­lar­i­ty and four­teen-year-old Sophie, a Ger­man girl who is sex­u­al­ly pre­co­cious and quite mature for her age, is going through ado­les­cent defi­ance. Her father, a Com­mu­nist who ​‘sees the light’ and becomes a Nazi, and her moth­er, who just wants a nor­mal life, do not appre­ci­ate the fact that she has Jew­ish friends. When her boyfriend becomes a Nazi, too, Sophie takes action. She spends as much time as pos­si­ble with her neigh­bor, Isaac Zarco, a Jew­ish kab­bal­ist with an inter­est­ing cir­cle of bohemi­an friends. They belong to a resis­tance group called the Ring. When one mem­ber is sent to Dachau, Sophie real­izes that there is a trai­tor in the group. Who could it be? This is a tale with rich ele­ments of mys­ti­cism, his­to­ry, and sus­pense that will keep read­ers turn­ing pages. It will appeal to those who enjoy lit­er­ary fic­tion, his­tor­i­cal nov­els, and mysteries.