Price to Pay

Alex Capus's novels have been runaway best-sellers in Germany, and his novel Leon and Louise received widespread critical acclaim on its English publication in 2012.A Price to Pay, the fourth of Capus s novels to be published in English, tells the interwoven stories of three disparate figures from interwar Switzerland: pacifist Felix Bloch, who ends up working on the Manhattan Project; Laura d Oriano, who wants to become a singer but instead becomes an Allied spy in fascist Italy; and Emile Gillieron, who accompanies Heinrich Schliemann to Troy and becomes one of art s greatest forgers. Taking off from the only moment in history when all three were in the same place a November day in 1924 at Zurich Station Capus traces their diverging paths as they secure their places in the annals of history but at what price?