En Busca de Klingsor

In this masterly story by Mexican novelist Volpi, a leading member of the ""Crack"" generation of Latin American writers, quantum physics, the Nuremburg Trials, and a mixed-race relationship come together in a twisting, haunting tale of post-World War II Germany. Like Borges's garden of forking paths, the lives of German mathematician Gustav Links and Frank Bacon, an American physicist/spy, are arbitrarily drawn together as they search for Klingsor, Hitler's alleged mastermind of German science. Their aim: to discover Germany's nuclear secrets before the Soviets do. Even as they start disentangling the mystery surrounding Klingsor, their own pasts are starting to unravel; for the protagonists, a love that leads to betrayal becomes not just another strand in the mysterious adventure but, ultimately, their downfall. An engaging, multilevel book that establishes the reader as detective while also challenging the very meaning of truth, this book was first published in 1999 and won the Premio Biblioteca Breve. While its reissue as a ""classic"" is perhaps a little premature, this is a fascinating book that only improves on rereading. An interview with the author as well as a biography and questions for book groups complete the book; recommended for large public libraries and academic libraries.-Alison Hicks, Univ. of Colorado at Boulder