PROPAGANDA

It’s 1944 and John Glueck is at war, deep inside Germany in the gloomy Hürtgen Forest. It seems only a few days ago that he was a student in New York, full of love for the German culture of his ancestors. Then he was inducted into Sykewar, the US Army’s propaganda unit. In France, he meets his idol Ernest Hemingway, on whose orders he goes to Hürtgen Forest, a seemingly unimportant area nevertheless bitterly defended by the Wehrmacht. He discovers a secret in the forest just as one of the biggest catastrophes of the war begins. The Battle of Hürtgen Forest ultimately claims over 15,000 lives. What can save John Glueck? His friend Van, a Senecan Native American with deep knowledge of woodlands? His broken German? A miracle?

No one who went into the “Forest of Blood” came out unchanged. The ignorance of the generals was a warning sign for future wars. Twenty years later in Vietnam, John Glueck discovers that politicians are as cynical and dishonest as ever. He is determined to make a difference and embarks on a path that leads from the terrible forest battles of World War II directly to the Pentagon Papers.

Steffen Kopetzky’s major new novel constructs a spellbinding narrative arc linking World War II with Vietnam, creating an intensely gripping story of war, lies and a man who leaves false truths behind.