The man in white put his brandy snifter aside. "Let's get down to business now, boys." Tipping his cropped gray head, he lowered his glasses and looked at the men. They faced him attentively, cigars poised. Silence took the room.
"You know what you're going out to do," the man in white said. "Ninety-four men have to die on or near certain dates in the next two and a half years... They're sixty-five years old, or will be when their dates come around. They're family men, stable; civil servants mostly; men of minor authority.
"Their deaths are the final step in an operation to which I and the leaders of the Organization have devoted many years, enormous effort, and a large part of the Organization's fortune. The hope and the destiny of the Aryan race lie in the balance."
Thus Ira Levin, father of Rosemary's Baby, opens his strongest and …
The man in white put his brandy snifter aside. "Let's get down to business now, boys." Tipping his cropped gray head, he lowered his glasses and looked at the men. They faced him attentively, cigars poised. Silence took the room.
"You know what you're going out to do," the man in white said. "Ninety-four men have to die on or near certain dates in the next two and a half years... They're sixty-five years old, or will be when their dates come around. They're family men, stable; civil servants mostly; men of minor authority.
"Their deaths are the final step in an operation to which I and the leaders of the Organization have devoted many years, enormous effort, and a large part of the Organization's fortune. The hope and the destiny of the Aryan race lie in the balance."
Thus Ira Levin, father of Rosemary's Baby, opens his strongest and most masterful novel yet. Why have these harmless aging men been marked for murder? What is the hidden link that binds them? What interest can they possibly hold for their killers: six former SS men dispatched from South America by the most wanted Nazi still alive, the notorious "Angel of Death"? One man alone must answer these questions and stop the killings--Nazi hunter Yakov Liebermann, himself aging and thought by some to be losing his grip on reality.
At the heart of The Boys from Brazil lies a new contemporary nightmare, chilling and all too possible.
--front flap
When I read the blurb for this novel, I scoffed at the premise. I'm still scoffing at the premise of it. Another W for Ira Levin, the man can't miss. The writing was just so fluid, conversations never awkward, inner monologue not corny and exposition never too obnoxious. I think his experience writing plays makes the way he sets scenes so engaging. The book really cemented him as my favourite author of all time. Also found it interesting how applicable the mindset of the protag was to current circumstances and perhaps even current public opinion.
