Richard Grant Another Green World

Another Green World

Richard Grant

Knopf, Aug 2006, $24.95

ISBN 0307263592

In 1944, bureaucrat Martina Panich uncovers a document that affirms that the Nazis are methodically killing Jews as the Final Solution. Millions have died apparently and many more will follow if the Allies continue to do nothing. However, the Allied leadership rationalizing insists there is no undeniable proof that the Germans are mass murdering the Jews so they ignore the issue.

Martina learns the hard proof is held by former Brooklynite turn Polish resistance fighter, Isaac "the Fox" Tadziewski. Coincidentally Martina and her friend DC restaurateur Ingo Miller met Isaac at a youth rally fifteen years ago in the Weimer Republic. Martina and Ingo enlist the help of everyday people dubbed the Varian Fry Brigade to find Isaac in enemy held territory in order to steal the document to bring to the attention of the reluctant allies, who like the Nazis wants this group of commandoes to fail. The fourth member of the 1929 youth meeting, embedded with the Red Army reporter Sammy Butler also seeks the document.

When the tale follows the exploits of the fearsome foursome as they comer closer and closer to converging, ANOTHER GREEN WORLD is a superb WWII thriller. When the story line digresses with lengthy soliloquies on a variety of period piece subjects not directly related to the plot, it loses much of its bounce though the topics are fascinating sidebars. Still this is a deep thriller that is at its best when it stays on topic of making a moral plea through a historical perspective to not bury heads in the sand when Rwanda, Darfur or other genocides occur.

Harriet Klausner