Why a Booktrail?
1940, 2017: Just how dangerous can one book be?
The BookWorm
What you need to know before your trail
Europe, 1940: It’s late summer and Belgium has been overrun by the German army. Posing as a friar, a British operative talks his way into the monastery at Villers-devant-Orval just before Nazi art thieves plan to sweep through the area and whisk everything of value back to Berlin. He steals nothing but adds an old leather Bible to the monastery’s library and then escapes.
London, 2017: A construction worker operating a backhoe makes a grisly discovery–a skeletal arm-bone with a rusty handcuff attached to the wrist.
Russian historian and former Soviet chess champion Larissa Mendelovg Klimt, “Lara the Bookworm,” is tasked with finding out the link between these two cases and why a book can be such an important historical tome as well as a weapon.
Locations
Reset- America/USA - Alaska
- G: Deadhorse
- H: Valdez
- England - London
- I: Chancery Ln
- J: The Courtauld Institute of Art
Travel Guide
Moscow
Most of the book is set here, with Lara staying at the Radisson Slavyanskaya Hotel and teaching at the Moscow State University. She works out at the Russian State Miltary Archives which as you can imagine holds a fascinating account of historical artefacts and books.
Russian history is a fascinating book to open in its own right – Wait till you read about Conception Day” when Russians are urged to do their part to increase the population in the Motherland and how a book could have made Hitler attack the East.
Historical interludes abound from Nostradamus to Ian Fleming and from figures who were at some of the most pivotal historical moments in time.
As a city, Moscow is evoked with icy panache – from the fast flowing river to the political intrigue which smothers the city throughout.
Alaska
Home to the test stations and the icy remote areas which are hard to infiltrate and escape from if need be!
London
Briefly mentioned as some important finds are made here. Certainly the British response to Hitler might have been different given the discoveries in this novel and Churchill would have been at the centre of them
Booktrailer Review
Susan: @thebooktrailer
There’s a whole host of themes to get your bookish radar twitching – a secret in an ancient tome, Hitler’s words on a page, the words of Nostradamus and more. Historical figures creep in and out of the pages until you really don’t know what’s real or not.
There’s lots of detail especially in the Moscow set sections and it can get a bit overloaded at times so best to read slow and take it all in.
Booktrail Boarding Pass: The Bookworm
Destination: Moscow, Alaska, London Author/Guide: Mitch Silver Departure Time: 1940s, 2017
Back to ResultsWhere Next?
