Cafe Berlin

Screenwriter/film producer Nebenzal, whose credits include Cabaret, mixes seedy ambiance and solid historical detail in this darkly kaleidoscopic first novel. The narrative unfolds as Daniel Saporta, aka Salazar, hiding out in a Berlin attic in 1943, feverishly records the city's decadent nightlife between the wars. A Syrian Jew, Saporta assumes the identity of a Christian Spaniard when he moves to Berlin in 1930 and opens a nightclub whose lurid shows titillate high-ranking Nazis and solid German citizens. Recruited into a British spy ring in 1941, he forces his live-in lover, Samira Mansour, a Jewish dancer, to become the mistress of a Nazi officer fond of sadomasochistic sex games. Samira uncovers the cooperation between Hitler and the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, the real-life Palestinian leader who sought the Nazis' help in a plan to annihilate the Jews. While his tormented lover sinks into cocaine addiction, in late 1941 Saporta undertakes a mission to Yugoslavia, where Croatians are slaughtering Jews, Serbs and Gypsies with the help of Bosnian Muslims, minions of the Grand Mufti. Saporta's diary, extending to Berlin's capture in April 1945, is punctuated by bad news from the outside world, delivered by his club's street-smart ex-manager. An absorbing, ingenious debut. (Sept.)