The Seventh Gate

'A gripping, heartbreaking and beautiful thriller... unforgettable' Simon Sebag Montefiore 'capitvating... stark and unflinching' Publishers Weekly BERLIN, 1932 Intelligent, artistic and precocious, fourteen-year-old Sophie Riedesel dreams of nothing more than becoming an actress and spending time with her beloved Jewish neighbour, Isaac Zarco. But when her father and boyfriend become Nazi collaborators and Hitler's meteoric rise to power gathers momentum, she is forced to lead a double life to protect those closest to her. Invited by Isaac into the Ring, a secret circle of underground activists working against the government, Sophie soon learns the ways of espionage and subterfuge. But when a series of sterilisations, murders and disappearances threatens to destroy the group, Sophie must fight to expose the traitor in their midst and save all that she loves about Germany - whatever the price. Thrilling, suspenseful and evocative, The Seventh Gate is at once a love story, a tale of fierce heroism and a horrifying study of the Nazis' war against the disabled. 'The Seventh Gate is not only a superb thriller but an intelligent and moving novel about the heartbreaking human condition.' Alberto Manguel 'gripping, consuming, and shocking... The reader will be haunted by these brave characters and the stirring murder mystery.' New York Journal of Books '[A] powerfully understated saga' Kirkus Reviews

Richard Zimler was born in New York in 1956 and now resides in Porto, Portugal. His twelve novels have been translated into twenty-three languages and have appeared on bestseller lists in twelve different countries, including the United States, the UK, Australia, Brazil, Italy and Portugal. Five of his works have been nominated for the International Dublin Literary Award, the richest prize in the English-speaking world, and he has won several other accolades for his fiction across Europe and North America. The Incandescent Threads is the latest in his Sephardic Cycle, an acclaimed group of independent works that explore the lives of different branches and generations of a Portuguese-Jewish family, the Zarcos. zimler.com | @RichardZimler