The One Man
“As moving as it is gripping. A winner on all fronts.”—Booklist (starred review)
“Heart-pounding…This is Gross’s best work yet, with his heart and soul imprinted on every page.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Poland. 1944. Alfred Mendl and his family are brought on a crowded train to a Nazi concentration camp after being caught trying to flee Paris with forged papers. His family is torn away from him on arrival, his life’s work burned before his eyes. To the guards, he is just another prisoner, but in fact Mendl—a renowned physicist—holds knowledge that only two people in the world possess. And the other is already at work for the Nazi war machine.
Four thousand miles away, in Washington, DC, Intelligence lieutenant Nathan Blum routinely decodes messages from occupied Poland. Having escaped the Krakow ghetto as a teenager after the Nazis executed his family, Nathan longs to do more for his new country in the war. But never did he expect the proposal he receives from “Wild” Bill Donovan, head of the OSS: to sneak into the most guarded place on earth, a living hell, on a mission to find and escape with one man, the one man the Allies believe can ensure them victory in the war.
Bursting with compelling characters and tense story lines, this historical thriller from New York Times bestseller Andrew Gross is a deeply affecting, unputdownable series of twists and turns through a landscape at times horrifyingly familiar but still completely new and compelling.
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Community Reviews
The One Man by Andrew Gross
407 pages
What’s it about?
It is 1944 and Alfred Mendl is imperative to the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos. Beating the Germans in this race will determine the outcome of the war. The only problem is that Alfred Mendl and his family were rounded up and sent to Auschwitz. Can Intelligence officer Nathan Blum get Mendl out of the camp?
What did it make me think about?
One would have to completely suspend all rational thought to buy into this story! The author clearly has a gift for suspense, but really….
Should I read it?
Okay- I must admit that EVERYONE loves this book. It was widely reviewed and I did not see one unfavorable opinion. Gross took actual historical facts and wove them into a suspenseful story that I felt was just too far-fetched. I am going against the tide here- but I did not like this book at all! Maybe I am just overdone with WWII Nazi stories. I would recommend this book to anyone who really likes WWII, suspense, and an easy read. Anyone who would like a little more substance- walk past this one on the shelf!
Quote-
“The barking of the dogs was closing in on them, not far behind now.
The two men clawed through the dense Polish forest at night, clinging to the banks of the Vistula, only miles from Slovakia. Their withered bodies cried out from exhaustion, on the edge of giving out.”
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