Marek Halter has created a dramatic and thrilling saga set against the Jewish republic of Birobidzhan. Founded by Stalin, Birobidzhan is a lost city in the far southeastern corner of the Soviet Union bordering China, originally populated by those escaping the growing Nazi movement in the 1930s.

Halter begins his novel in the US at the height of the Red Scare in the 1950s. The House Un-American Activities Committee questions Marina, a Russian actress who has been passing herself off as an American for the past several years. Marina is accused of being a spy and for having murdered Michael Apron, an OSS agent. But they have it all wrong and Marina desperately tries to make them see the truth.

Having found success on the Moscow stage at an early age, Marina had the honor of being invited to a party at the Kremlin where she let herself be seduced by Stalin. His wife's subsequent suicide put Marina's own life at risk forcing her to keep a low profile in order to avoid being to sent to the gulag. After a few years of hiding in the shadows of Moscow, she decided to settle in Birobidzhan where she would be out of reach from Stalin's men.

Marina became Jewish and thrived in the Yiddish theater community there but an ambitious playwright, Metvei Emiot, developped a dangerous crush on her. When he realized that Marina was in love with Michael Apron, the town doctor, Emiot slung around accusations that Apron was a spy.

And he wasn't wrong. Birobidzan's proximity to China made it an interesting geographical position for the Allied forces who wanted to observe Japan's movements in Manchuria. That's exactly what Apron was doing there.

With his life in danger, Apron revealed to Marina that he was indeed an OSS agent and that the two needed to flee to the US before they were arrested by the Soviets. Together they attempted a harrowing escape to the US, but only Marina made it...which is why she must prove to the incredulous men questioning her that she is not a spy. Her life depends on it.

Rights sold: Italy (Newton Compton)