Overview

This collection of nine wide-ranging and skillfully written stories shows Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie as a vulnerable young boy, a preening young man on the make, and, finally, an enfeebled old man forced to confront his crimes.

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9781960018908

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Reviews

These eloquent and often wrenching stories closely examine the abuse of power: the psychology behind it, the damage it leaves in its wake, and the seductive way it draws others into its web. Roberta Hartling Gates has written a perceptive exploration of the human heart's dark corners. - Connie Hampton Connally, author of The Songs We Hide and the forthcoming Fire Music In her masterful debut, Roberta Hartling Gates follows a mid-level Gestapo agent from his vulnerable beginnings as a young boy to his eventual confrontation with his crimes decades later. With meticulous attention to historical detail and a profound sensitivity to human nature, each story offers a fresh episode in Barbie's life, a new perspective on Barbie's character, and a novel narrative experiment, delving into his romantic relationships, his encounters with resistance leaders, and the consequences of his actions. From the violent household of his upbringing to his role in the roundup of foreign Jews, we witness the transformation of a seemingly ordinary individual into an agent of evil. - Mark Mayer, author of Aerialists What Roberta Hartling Gates knows--and what this linked collection of stories so deftly shows us--is how one boy's internalized suffering can come to have such a terrible impact on the displaced Jews and French Resistance members of Lyon, France. And it's these people, rounded up by chance at Number 12 Rue Sainte-Catherine, who will stay with you. Because Gates writes about them with such precision and such rare understanding, they absolutely come alive on the page. John Dalton, author of Heaven Lake

Author Information

Roberta Hartling Gates has been published in Confrontation, Fourth Genre, the Beloit Fiction Journal and elsewhere. She was awarded the Dogwood Literary Prize in Fiction in 2021 and has an MFA from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She lives in a suburb of Chicago with her husband and is currently at work on a novel set in Vichy France.

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