Book excerpt: A Jewish woman in love with a Prussian officer moves to Hitler’s Berlin in this ominous, “spectacular” novel by the New York Times–bestselling author (Kirkus Reviews). Every afternoon, Paule tends to her father’s newspaper clippings and listens to his stories. An actor, Paul-Alain Bernheim has a sexual appetite and a lust for life that have made him a legend of the Paris stage. He is also a fiercely proud Jew, and he has imbued his daughter with an unshakeable pride in the history of her people. So why, she wonders, has she fallen in love with a German? From the moment Paule spots Wilhelm von Rhode at an embassy reception, she can’t take her eyes off him. So after a whirlwind Paris romance, when von Rhode is recalled to Berlin, Paule follows as his wife. But as the Nazis tighten their stranglehold on Germany and the world prepares for war, their love may not survive what is to come. “Fascinating.” —Life