Every language has its own nuances for guilt and remorse. For the most basic feelings. Living in Portugal since 1990, American Richard Zimler attributes much of his thinking and the nuances of his plots, much of it with a strong Israeli influence, to his contact with Portuguese syntax. A Jew of Polish descent, Zimler has dedicated himself to revisiting the history of his people—and also the Holocaust—in works of great poetic power. After successes like *The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon*, which deals with the forced conversion of Jews to Christianity during the reign of King Manuel I, he returns with a noir set in the heart of Warsaw's Jewish ghetto. *The Anagrams of Warsaw* is a chilling and superbly written detective novel, narrated by a man who should be dead. And who is capable of lying about his own identity. Early 1940s. The Nazis imprison thousands of Jews in a small area of the Polish capital. An urban island isolated from the outside world. Erik Cohen, an elderly psychiatrist, is forced to move to the ghetto with his niece and nine-year-old great-nephew, Adam. But one bitterly cold morning, the boy disappears. And reappears dead. His body is found on the barbed wire, with one leg severed and a small piece of string left in his mouth. Soon another corpse appears—this time that of a young girl, whose hand has been severed. And the evidence begins to point to a Jewish traitor luring children to their deaths. Heartbroken, Erik joins his childhood friend, Izzy, to try to uncover the killer. An investigation that clashes with their own lack of freedom and the neglect of the German authorities. Another aspect of Zimler's masterful work: ghetto life, with all its difficulties. The attempts to maintain normalcy in the face of work, culture, family life, and religious practice. The Anagrams of Warsaw is a deeply moving and dark historical thriller. A journey to the most forbidden corners of Warsaw and the most heroic corners of the human heart.
