The Devil in Buenos Aires - Hardcover

Powell, Lily; Froissard, Lily Powell

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1592282997 ISBN 13: 9781592282999

Verlag: The Lyons Press, 2004

Inhaltsangabe

When young German Jew Antonie Herrnfeld arrives in Buenos Aires on the eve of the Holocaust, she is plunged into a complicated tangle of spies and counter spies.
Shortly after her arrival, Stefan von der Heiden, a Nazi diplomat
stationed in Buenos Aires, seeks to recruit her as a spy. He dangles a forceful incentive: the lives of her parents, still in Germany. The British, meanwhile, tell her that her parents are dead. She is soon working as a double agent for the Allies, threading her way through Buenos Aires's underworld-its bordellos, back rooms, and beer halls.
Her handler is an American named Larsen who teaches her the arts of spycraft, and the techniques of the double agent. As her life goes into a tailspin of double-crossing and mysterious meetings, she risks alienation from her own family. In the exhilarating but deadly existence she leads, she cannot help but fall for Larsen.
Meanwhile, Stefan, whose father is assassinated by the Gestapo, has a change of heart, renounces the Nazis, and begins an ardent pursuit of Antonie. When he becomes the only man who can save her life, the double agent must mount her finest campaign.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

LILY POWELL FROISSARD is the author of The Bird of Paradise, winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.

Von der hinteren Coverseite

A pair of young German-Jewish emigrants arrive in Buenos Aires shortly before World War II. They are Antonie ("Tony") Herrnfeld and her twin brother Peter, who are escaping the beginnings of the Holocaust with whatever their parents were able to smuggle over to Argentina. They settle into Buenos Aires society through their mother's family, the Guerida-Pazes. Tony volunteers at the Red Cross and comes into contact with British sailors when shocking news comes from back home in Germany: Her family is no more.
Shortly thereafter Antonie is contacted by a Nazi diplomat - a spy - who tells her that her parents are fine, and that she can help them by gathering information from the British sailors about which ships will sail and when. She knows he is lying, and immediately contacts the British embassy, where her secret life in espionage begins as a double agent. It is a meeting that leads her through the seedy underworld of Buenos Aires bordellos and the dangerous back rooms of German beer halls where unspeakably cruel German intelligence agents plot to advance the Nazi cause through subterfuge, sedition, and sabotage.
Her Allied handler is an American named Larsen, who teaches her not only the black arts of espionage tradecraft, but also the extremely dangerous techniques of the double agent. As her life tailspins into a vortex of crosses and double crosses, mysterious meetings, and situations where she survives by her quick wits and improvised lies, she becomes alienated from her mother's family, who think she has become a woman of low morals. Her brother moves to the countryside and it seems that only her uncle understands, but if only she could tell him about the weight she carries, about her precarious life and death struggle. In this exhilarating but deadly serious existence she becomes attracted to Larsen, her only confidant and lifeline to the outside world.
Meanwhile her Nazi contact, Stefan von der Heiden, becomes concerned about the quality of information she is supplying. He accuses her of lying, of being a double agent - but he can't go to his superiors because it would cause them to suspect him. He implores her to tell him the truth, but she stubbornly sticks to her story. For her part, an emotionally confused Tony resists his advances, but as the Nazis become more and more suspicious of her, and it becomes more and more apparent that her usefulness to the British embassy is waning, she begins a dangerous tango with Stefan in order to save her life. By degrees she seduces him, and is seduced, until he can no longer hold back the Nazi operatives in his own embassy.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: The Lyons Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2004
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1592282997
• ISBN 13: 9781592282999
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 256
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar