Alex Capus

Der Fälscher, die Spionin und der Bombenbauer

«Ein bisschen was ausmalen kann man immer, schließlich hat die Welt ihre Logik.»

The Forger, the Spy and the Bomb Maker is a novel about three reluctant heroes.
First, there’s the young man who dreams of world peace and becomes a bomb-maker: Felix Bloch is working in the United States on the development of the atom bomb. He studied atomic physics in Leipzig under Werner Heisenberg and fled to the USA in 1933. Later, he helps Robert Oppenheimer with his work on the bomb at Los Alamos and is awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1952.
Then there’s the girl who’s determined to become a singer but comes to realise that she just hasn’t the talent to make it to the top: Laura d’Oriano is caught up in the maelstrom of history and ends as a spy for the Allies in Italy. She makes contact with the Resistance in France but fails to realise Mussolini’s secret services have been watching her ever since she arrived in Italy. She is the only woman to be executed by the Italian fascists during the Second World War.
Finally, there’s the art student, who sets out for Troy: Emile Gilliéron travels to the legendary excavation site with the famous researcher, Heinrich Schliemann. He makes drawings of the objects they find, restores them, even makes reproductions of them and, almost by accident, becomes one of the greatest forgers of all time.
These three so different individuals only happen upon each other once: in November 1924, at Zurich’s main railway station. Felix Bloch is living in the city, the other two are passing through. But their paths remain strangely intertwined.
Alex Capus has researched the careers of his heroes in great depth and he tells their stories with a light and elegant touch – interspersing them with a lot of contemporary detail. There’s even a short, easy-to-understand introduction to the world of pre-war atomic physics!
(Martin Zingg, translated by Max Easterman, Rosie Goldsmith)

Recommended for translation by the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, www.12swissbooks.ch

Translation of title: The Forger, the Spy and the Bomb-Maker

Hanser Verlag, München 2013

ISBN: 978-3-446-24327-9