THE YEAR OF THE RAT: A Chronicle

by Mladin Zarubion ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 24, 1964

This story within a story which deals with a great WWII impersonation is certified as to its quasi-possibility in a postscript by Ralph Ingersoll. It was told originally to Mr. Zarubica ten years ago by Carlo, a hunting guide whom he met after the war in a Tyrolean Lodge. carlo disappeared following his expensive revelation. He has not seen Carlo since except in a photograph in Look magazine identifying martin Dormann, the most intelligent and influential of Hitler's associates whose fate is still undetermined. Martin Bormann was Carlo. well, Carlo's story deals with the Allied agent Abraham B. who was dropped behind the lines to pose as a German major general and to give von Rundstadt the (false) document which led the Germans to believe that the D-Day landing would be at Pas de Calais instead of Normandy. All of this went off very well. More difficult was Abraham B.'s attempt to deceive the Countess who had once been the German General's mistress. She not only knows who he isn't, but she is ready to renew the affair, while he cannot ""deny nor turn away from his passion for her."" Finally he is forced to escape, in a coffin, while she faces exposure and execution... Much of Zarubica-Carlo-Bormann's ""chronicle"" deals with his Prisoner-of-Zenda romance with sentimentality italicized. It defeats the purpose of the book while contributing to the conjecture.

Pub Date: Oct. 24, 1964

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: arcourt, Brace & World

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1964

Categories: NONFICTION