Master of his Fate

About the Book

Master of His Fate will take you for a walk through Berlin’s Tiergarten; also you will observe a kidnapping; witness desperate episodes in Saxony; and join a Luftwaffe pilot as he escapes Germany flying a Stuka dive bomber to neutral Sweden. All this, in the decade of 1929 to 1940. The background for these events are as disparate as a pagan celebration in the streets of Berlin and a Nazi bombing run to kill King Haakon of Norway. This story, told from the Point of View of an American boy trapped in Nazi Germany, is in sharp contrast to the life of luck and love he finds as a young man on the Swedish island of Gotland.

The protagonist’s twin brother has a separate tale to tell from his Point of View. After being expelled by the Nazis in 1939, he returned to America. A meteoric business career culminates in his assignment to seek business for his American company in post-war Europe. From his new office in Brussels, he travels Europe. Of course, he takes this opportunity to search for his lost brother including a visit to war torn Berlin and to Sweden.

Evil had been lying in wait for the twins during their stay in Germany. In a strange twist of Fate, you will see that the kidnapper entered the life of the boys’ father many years before. First, in a Capetown barroom brawl and, subsequently, as a deserter from the German Army trenches in World War I.

The plot driven scenes have the ingredients of an exciting motion picture. I hope, however, you will join a group who will claim they ‘ liked the book better than the movie.’ I will postpone my prayers for such success until you have read the book.

About the Author

Throughout a career of writing advertisements and sales promotion materials, I carried the dream of someday becoming an author. The day arrived, the dream came true. The initial idea for my novel sprang from a discolored newspaper clipping taken from a 1920s issue of the European edition of The Herald. I found the short article - it appears early in Chapter One - among letters written by my mother during our family’s stay in Europe. The formula for writing “Master of His Fate” included a pinch of autobiography, a large measure of library and travel research, and a pound of my most vivid imagination.