Joseph Kanon

Kanon, Joseph, (Alibi [hc, Henry Holt & Co., 2005] 978-0805078862 [pb, Picador, 2006] 978-0312425906

Kanon, Joseph, (The Accomplice [hc, Atria Books, 2019] 978-1501121425 [pb, Simon & Schuster, 2020] 978-1471162688 [This novel is Kanon’s most explicit “Jewish book,” focusing entirely on the hunt for Nazi war criminals.  Max Weill, a survivor of Auschwitz, has spent his life trying to track down Otto Schramm, a fictional doctor modeled after Josef Mengele. The story follows Max’s nephew, Aaron Wiley (a CIA analyst), who travels to Argentina to find Schramm. It explores the conflict between the Mossad’s shift toward modern counter-terrorism and the survivors’ need for nakam (vengeance) or formal justice. The narrative delves into how the Nazis co-opted Jewish prisoners to assist in atrocities and the lasting “burden” this placed on the survivors and their children. – Google/AI]

Kanon, Joseph, (Istanbul Passage [hc, Atria Books, 2012] 978-1439156414 [pb, Atria Books, 2013] 978-1439156438

Kanon, Joseph, (Leaving Berlin [hc, Atria Books, 2015] 978-1476704647 [pb, Atria books, 2016] 978-1476704654 [Berlin, 1948. Almost four years after the war’s end, the city is still in ruins, a physical wasteland and a political symbol about to rupture. In the West, a defiant, blockaded city is barely surviving on airlifted supplies; in the East, the heady early days of political reconstruction are being undermined by the murky compromises of the Cold War. Espionage, like the black market, is a fact of life. Even culture has become a battleground, with German intellectuals being lured back from exile to add credibility to the competing sectors.

Alex Meier, a young Jewish writer, fled the Nazis for America before the war. But the politics of his youth have now put him in the crosshairs of the McCarthy witch-hunts. Faced with deportation and the loss of his family, he makes a desperate bargain with the fledgling CIA: he will earn his way back to America by acting as their agent in his native Berlin. But almost from the start things go fatally wrong. A kidnapping misfires, an East German agent is killed, and Alex finds himself a wanted man. Worse, he discovers his real assignment—to spy on the woman he left behind, the only woman he has ever loved. Changing sides in Berlin is as easy as crossing a sector border. But where do we draw the lines of our moral boundaries? At betrayal? Survival? Murder? Joseph Kanon’s compelling thriller is a love story that brilliantly brings a shadowy period of history vividly to life. – Amazon]

Kanon, Joseph, (Shanghai [hc, Scribner, 2024] 978-1668006429 [pb, Scribner, 2025] 978-1668006436 [The story follows Daniel Lohr, a young Jewish refugee and former resistance fighter who flees Berlin after the Kristallnacht violence. On the ship from Trieste to Shanghai, he enters into a passionate affair with a fellow exile, Leah Auerbach. Also on board is Colonel Yamada, a high-ranking official in the Japanese military police, who serves as a menacing presence throughout the voyage. Daniel reunites with his Uncle Nathan, a well-connected gangster running nightclubs, casinos, and brothels in the city’s underbelly. When Nathan is wounded in a gang-related shooting, Daniel is thrust into managing the business. He quickly adapts, navigating a dangerous landscape of Chinese gangs, the Japanese occupation, and shifting political loyalties. Leah’s Struggle: Leah finds herself in the crowded Hongkou Jewish ghetto. To survive, she is eventually forced into a compromising position as the mistress of Colonel Yamada, who “flaunts” her as a possession to taunt Daniel. The novel focuses on the “smart plays” and moral lines refugees must cross to survive a city dancing on the rim of a volcano. Kanon uses the real-world historical backdrop of the 20,000 European Jews who found an “escape hatch” in Shanghai just before the Japanese fully took over the city. – Google/AI]