Used
Hardcover
2003
$3.25
A man arrives at Larkwood Monastery claiming sanctuary. Edward Schwermann is accused of Nazi war crimes: the chances are he's stained with blood, but politics demand that Larkwood shelter him. And Schwermann has intimated that the Church offered him sanctuary once before, during the war. It is this potentially embarrassing claim which brings Father Anselm onto centre stage. Once a lawyer, Anselm is sanctioned to make discreet enquiries in Rome, but as he edges towards the truth behind Schwermann's crimes, his renewed contact with the outside world threatens to overwhelm his fragile spiritual identity. For Agnes Embleton, seeing Schwermann's face on the television has brought back a flood of memories: of Paris, of The Round Table, a group of idealistic students who tried to save thousands of Jewish children from deportation, of the Frenchman who betrayed them and of Schwermann, the German officer who sent the children to their deaths. But what Agnes doesn't know and Anselm discovers is the personal investment Schwermann had in The Round Table, the silent bargains made by its members and the true extent of Schwermann's final treachery.
New
paperback
$12.23
What should you do if the world has turned against you? When Father Anselm is asked this question by an old man at Larkwood Priory, his response, to claim sanctuary, is to have greater resonance than he could ever have imagined. For that evening the old man returns, demanding the protection of the church. His name is Eduard Schwermann and he is wanted by the police as a suspected war criminal. With her life running out, Agnes Aubret feels it is time to unburden to her granddaughter Lucy the secrets she has been carrying for so long. Fifty years earlier, Agnes had been living in Occupied Paris, a member of a small group risking their lives to smuggle Jewish children to safety - until they were exposed by a young SS Officer: Eduard Schwermann. As Anselm attempts to uncover Schwermann's past, and as Lucy's search into her grandmother's history continues, their investigations dovetail to reveal a remarkable story. 'Brodrick keeps the story going at a cracking pace, flitting back and forth between its various elements, characters and eras with timing so expert the reader is compelled to keep turning the pages' Time Out