Edelweiss

by Nathan Price

Imagine one of history’s most inhumane figures rationalizing the murder of over 6 million Jews in a captivating conversation between Adolf Hitler and the dazzling heroine, Katja Wagner. “It comes from the bible and proclaims the Jews as the Chosen People. I merely borrowed their Hebrew superiority and substituted my own Aryan version.” The Fuhrer hesitated and was overcome by a devilish grin, “The racism I preach is a parody of Jewish racism, a hungry imitation. Aside from that though, hatred for the Jew is real and was there well before me…you said it yourself.”The Fuhrer leaned forward as he became more excited, “I’m not imposing anti-Semitism on Germany or even the world, but expressing, carrying out the wishes of the rest of the world, with its willing collaboration. The world wants the Jew erased…for it was the Jew who invented conscience and left man forever tortured by expectations he cannot meet. What are my camps compared to that? Ask a man more than he is, hold before him an unrealistic ideal, of compassion, of self-denial, which only a saint could live by, and you stretch him on a rack, till his soul is torn. What can be crueler than that?”The story starts with the current day hero and main character, Mike Kennedy, fighting to find a cure for his daughter’s rare form of Leukemia. His quest takes him to a remote area of Bolivia where he encounters the shock of a lifetime and his eventual romantic interest, Brigitte Meijer. A twist of current day German political and economic tension paired with Swiss banking scandal uncovers a sleeping Nazi plot to place the rightful heir of the Reich at the head of the current day German state, the son of Katja Wagner and Adolf Hitler.In my years of business travel I came to realize the role a good read plays during long flights to Berlin, Hong Kong or Istanbul, not to mention Ambien® or a silky smooth martini. My historical fiction, Edelweiss, is meant to be a page-turner for that traveler wanting to get lost in a good story. Having had a life long fascination with the Holocaust it wasn’t until a business trip to Nuremberg, Germany when I was confronted with just how real the Nazi spell was, and still is. I had spent two days with a polished 50-year old Vice President of Sales of a potential supplier when he offered to give me a tour of the “historic parade grounds” the Nazi’s used on the outskirts of Nuremberg. Too comfortable his guard slipped and comments like “the territories to the East will eventually be Germany’s again” and “the job is not done with the Jew” stabbed at my ears. A first time novelist, I spent a career trying to help reinvent a $1 billion company. As one of the “young guns” I’ve played the role of change agent inventing new products and collaborating with designers and inventors from around the world. The son of a creative sage I’ve also been at the tip of the spear in negotiations with heartless retailers where the flip of a decision can shut down a plant or push the stock price. My background is in business but my passion has been anything creative, and writing is just that in raw form.

364 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 12, 2013