Two Brothers

On February 24, 1920, two infants are born in Berlin, destined to become brothers. On the same day, a party is formed in Munich that will soon elevate one of them while trying to destroy the other along with their parents and millions of other innocent people. From the first hours of life, the brothers are inseparable. Both resemble their Jewish parents, although they do not look like each other at all; they do not even know that one of them is adopted - just as they do not know that one of them is not Jewish. The parents are not concerned about questions of blood: these are their children, and they love them. The father plays in jazz clubs, the mother treats the sick, life in Germany, barely recovering from the Great War, is slowly getting better. Paul and Otto grow up together, befriend one girl, and fall in love with another. But when the Nazis come to power, life changes irreversibly and terrifyingly. In a country where blood and origin suddenly become the most important, the children, two Germans and two Jews, whose stories are intertwined from birth and forever, are forced to sacrifice much to survive themselves and save their loved ones.
Ben Elton's new novel, poignant and tender, about what people are willing to sacrifice for survival - their own and that of their loved ones. A novel about who they really are, what they are capable of, and who they will never want to become at any cost. About what they should do with daily hatred, with relentless memory, with unending pain - and how from all this sometimes grow loneliness, fear, and cruelty, and sometimes - kindness, wisdom, and happiness. This story contains laughter and tears, horror and amazement, tenderness and anger, loyalty and betrayal.