Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Apr 2018
304 pages
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publication Information
Atmospheric and intense, The Soul of a Thief captures the turbulent emotional rush of those caught behind the lines of occupied France, where one false step could spell death, and every day brings a new struggle to survive.
In the spring of 1944, I realized that I was not going to survive the war…
Shtefan Brandt, adjutant to a colonel of the Waffen SS, has made it through the war so far in spite of his commander's habit of bringing his staff into combat, and a pair of secrets that are far more dangerous than the battlefield. Shtefan is a Mischling and one of the thousands of German citizens of Jewish descent who have avoided the death camps by concealing themselves in the ranks of the German army. And he is in love with Gabrielle Belmont, the colonel's French mistress. Either of those facts could soon mean his end, were Colonel Erich Himmel to notice.
Colonel Himmel has other concerns, however. He can see the war's end on the horizon and recognizes that he is not on the winning side, no matter what the reports from Hitler's generals may say. So he has taken matters into his own hands, hatching a plot to escape Europe. To fund his new life, he plans to steal a fortune from the encroaching Allies. A fortune that Shtefan, in turn, plans to steal from him…
"Starred Review. Shtefan tells the story, and the young man's thoughtful, epistolary style makes scenes of desperate battle and budding love come alive with remarkable power. The Soul of a Thief is simply a wondrous and utterly captivating novel." - Booklist
"[A] rich if detached novel...the wealth of details about Shtefan's dangerous position as a Mischlinge makes for an engrossing account of a lesser-known side of the war. " - Publishers Weekly
"A fast-moving plot and vivid characters make this a most satisfying read." - Kirkus
"World War II buffs looking for easy fiction are likely candidates for this novel by the coauthor of In the Company of Heroes." - Library Journal
"An old-fashioned 'ripping yarn' from a master writer who knows how to keep the characters vivid, the plot twisting, and the action coming hot and heavy." - Steven Pressfield, author of Gates of Fire
"Hartov tells a story about Nazis and Jews on the same side of the front lines that few could have conceived but the likes of which had to have happened. Between the spring of 1943 and the summer of 1944 The Soul of a Thief packs a lifetime of human experiences into a year of European wartime." - Alex Rosenberg, author of The Girl from Krakow
"The Soul of a Thief is a war drama, a cat-and-mouse thriller and a coming-of-age love story, all wrapped into a terrific and compulsive read." - Daniel Kalla, bestselling author of The Far Side Of the Sky and Nightfall Over Shanghai
"This is an outstanding historical fiction novel illuminating a little-known aspect of the German war machine: the half- and quarter-Jews known as Mischlinge fighting, sometimes willingly, on behalf of Hitler's Third Reich." - Samuel Marquis, author of Bodyguard of Deception and Altar of Resistance
This information about The Soul of a Thief was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Steven Hartov is the coauthor of the New York Times bestseller In the Company of Heroes, as well as The Night Stalkers and Afghanistan on the Bounce. For six years he served as Editor-in-Chief of Special Operations Report. He has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, FOX, and most recently the History Channel's Secret Armies. A former Merchant Marine sailor, Israeli Defense Forces paratrooper and special operator, he is currently a Task Force Commander in the New York Guard. He lives in New Jersey.
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