Home > The Boys from Brazil

1 Story line

Yakov Liebermann is an elderly gentleman who is known as a Nazi hunter: he runs a center in Vienna that documents crimes against humanity perpetrated during the Holocaust. 'Center' is a big word: the waning interest of the Western nations in tracking down Nazi criminals has forced him to move the center to his lodgings.

Then, in September 1974, he receives a disturbing phone call from a young man who claims he has just finished eavesdropping on the Angel of Death, Dr. Josef Mengele, the concentration camp medical doctor who performed horrible experiments on Nazi victims. According to the young man, Mengele is activating the Kameradenwerk for a strange and gruesome assignment: he is sending out eight Nazis to kill 94 men, who share a few common traits. All men are civil servants and all of them have to be killed on a certain date, give or take a few days.

Before the young man can finish the conversation, there is a muffled sound of sudden action, then icy nothing, then the line goes dead.

Liebermann hesitates about what to do: he gets so many prank calls. But what if what the young man said is true? He decides to try and find out what's going on. A crazy hunt for Mengele and his boys ensues.

2 Notes

The book claims that the characters, with the exception of the 'persons of note', are not intended to represent specific living persons. However, the Liebermann character bears a more than passing resemblance to Simon Wiesenthal.

3 See also

• Philip K. DickPhilip Kindred Dick ( December 16 1928 March 2 1982), often known by his initials PKD or by the pen name Richard Phillips was an American science fiction writer and novelist who changed the genre profoundly. Though hailed during his lifetime by peers such's The Man in the High CastleAn alternate history novel published in 1962, Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle is set in the United States, 15 years after being defeated by the Axis powers in World War II. The eastern States are under German influence, the western, under the
• Robert HarrisRobert Harris is a British TV reporter and author, born in 1957 in the town of Nottingham. As an undergraduate student, he read History at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He is most famous for his historical novels. Fatherland (1992) BooksEnthsiast.com (now also's FatherlandAlternative meaning: Fatherland (novel). Fatherland is the nation of one's "fathers" or "forefathers. It can be viewed as a nationalist concept, insofar as it relates to nations. Compare to motherland and homeland. Groups that refer to their native countr
• Stephen FryStephen John Fry (born 24 August, 1957) is a British comedian, author, actor and director. He is the son of Alan and Marianne Fry. He was educated at Stout's Hill, Uppingham and Queens' College, Cambridge. He lives in Norfolk, London, and New York City.'s Making HistoryMaking History ( 1997) is Stephen Fry's third novel. The plot involves altering history to create a new reality — specifically one in which Hitler never existed. The book won the Sidewise Award for Alternate History. The story is told in first person by M