First published 2025
Christine Kuehn receives a bewildering phone call from a screenwriter asking about her family's role as Nazi spies during World War II. When she confronts her seventy-year-old father Eberhard, he breaks down in tears. He has been hiding a devastating family secret for decades. The story unfolds across two timelines. In the past, the prominent Kuehn family from Berlin sees opportunity in Nazi Germany's rise. Ruth Kuehn begins an affair with propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels at a party. When Goebbels discovers Ruth is half Jewish, he makes a calculated decision. Instead of killing her, he dispatches the entire Kuehn family to Hawaii as spies. Operating from their home near Pearl Harbor, Ruth and her parents build an elaborate espionage network. They funnel critical intelligence to Japanese forces while keeping young Eberhard in the dark. Their actions directly contribute to the attack on Pearl Harbor. After Eberhard's father faces trial for his role in planning the assault, Eberhard must confront the truth about his family's betrayal and decide how to move forward.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, world-war-ii, espionage
Vibes: emotional, intimate, suspenseful
Tropes: family-secrets, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Berlin, Hawaii, Pearl Harbor
Period: World War II
272 pages · Hardcover · Celadon Books