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The Traitors Circle
- Author
- Jonathan Freedland
- Narrator
- Jonathan Freedland
- Publisher
- John Murray Press
- Publish Date
- 11 September 2025
- Run Time
- 12 hours 41 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
- Rating
- 5.0 (1 review)
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What to expect
FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE ESCAPE ARTIST
A THE ECONOMIST BOOK OF THE YEAR
'Magnificent . . . Important and impressive'
DAILY TELEGRAPH
'Astonishing . . . Freedland is a master'
MICK HERRON
'Remarkable . . . This is how the best history books will be written in the future'
ANDREW ROBERTS
'Utterly gripping - and brilliantly told'
DOMINIC SANDBROOK
'Excellent . . . Perfect reading for this moment'
ANNE APPLEBAUM
'Utterly gripping, brilliantly researched and written'
ANTHONY HOROWITZ
'Compelling'
MAX HASTINGS, SUNDAY TIMES
'Thrilling, humane, and deeply moving . . . Not to be missed'
DAVID McCLOSKEY
'Totally gripping and timely'
JONATHAN DIMBLEBY
When the whole world is lying, someone must tell the truth.
Berlin, 1943. A group of high-society anti-Nazi dissenters meet for a tea party one late summer afternoon. They do not know that, sitting around the table, is someone poised to betray them all to the Gestapo - revealing their secret to the Nazis' most ruthless detective.
They form a circle of unlikely rebels, drawn from the German elite: two countesses, a diplomat, an intelligence officer, an ambassador's widow and a pioneering headmistress. Meeting in the shadows, rescuing Jews or plotting for a future Germany freed from the Führer's rule, what unites them is a shared loathing of the Nazis, a refusal to bow to Hitler and the courage to perform perilous acts of resistance. Or so they believe.
How did a group of brave, principled rebels, who had successfully defied Adolf Hitler for more than a decade, come to fall into such a lethal trap? And who betrayed them?
Undone from within and pursued to near-destruction by one of the Reich's cruellest men, they showed a heroism that raises a question with new urgency for our time: what kind of person does it take to risk everything and stand up to tyranny?
Critics Review
-
Haunting and heart-poundingly suspenseful - an extraordinary exploration of moral courage in a world overwhelmed by Nazi darkness. Freedland's passionate narrative takes us into secret and sometimes surprising corners of Hitler's Germany. In those shadows of vicious totalitarianism and betrayal - and facing the abyss of the Holocaust - is a circle of friends who embody unwavering human decency and faith and love. Freedland's powerful story-telling has intense resonance in today's darkening world. The moral questions are eternal
Sinclair McKay, bestselling author of DRESDEN
-
A story of unlikely rebels who had much to lose from resisting the Nazi regime, which so many of their peers supported. What made them trade personal safety for moral rectitude? Freedland's answer is as tense as a thriller yet perceptive, thoughtful and thoroughly researched. It made me think long after I'd turned the last page
Katja Hoyer, bestselling author of BEYOND THE WALL
-
Written like a novel, this tale of heroism, camaraderie, betrayal and tragedy will leave a lasting impression. It is a salutary reminder that history can inspire, even in the darkest of times
JOHN BEW, bestselling author of CITIZEN CLEM
-
An astonishing true story of courage, love and betrayal, told with the verve of a thriller. Freedland is a master at weaving spellbinding entertainments drawn from forgotten corners of history
Mick Herron
See more reviews See fewer reviews
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The Traitors Circle rivals Freedland's superb The Escape Artist. A revelatory account of heroism and treachery in Nazi Germany, it based on original research and reads like a thriller. Totally gripping and timely
Jonathan Dimbleby
-
Though every word is true, this remarkable book reads like a novel. Part thriller, part adventure story, part Holocaust history, it is a searing memorial to the half-million Germans who died opposing Hitler, as well as the six million Jews he killed. The narrative style is gripping; the morality searing. This is how the best history books will be written in the future
Andrew Roberts, author of CHURCHILL: WALKING WITH DESTINY
-
The Traitors Circle is not only a thrilling, humane, and deeply moving account of heroism, espionage, and betrayal in the Third Reich - it is the best sort of history, one whose rich characters breathe life and perspective into our present circumstance. Haunting, and not to be missed
David McCloskey, author of DAMASCUS STATION
-
Gripping, chilling, inspiring - Jonathan Freedland has a unique gift for exploring history's most profound questions with the urgency of a news reporter and the stylistic flair of a great novelist
Rafael Behr
-
Excellent . . . Freedland tells a gripping story but also asks a timely question: Why do some people collaborate? Why do others fight tyrants? The Traitors Circle is both history and parable, perfect reading for this moment
Anne Applebaum, bestselling author of AUTOCRACY INC.
-
Freedland has an uncanny ability to combine deep historical research with the pace and tension of a thriller. Told through the eyes of masterfully-detailed characters, this tale reminds us that tyranny, treachery and bravery go hand in hand
John Kampfner, bestselling author of IN SEARCH OF BERLIN
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Spectacular. The compelling true story of raw human courage in the face of the ultimate evil. A page-turning, heartbreaker of a book
Tony Parsons, bestselling author of THE MURDER BAG
-
Freedland's done it again. Thrilling, moving and inspiring, The Traitors Circle is a brilliant Second World War history book, as exciting as a novel and filled with extraordinary characters - some heroic and some evil - that is also both a portrait of courage, humanity and resistance against Nazi tyranny and a twisting tale of conspiracy and espionage
Simon Sebag Montefiore, bestselling author of THE WORLD: A FAMILY HISTORY
-
Utterly gripping, brilliantly researched and written
Anthony Horowitz
-
Freedland's account of the fall of the Solf Circle is structured like a thriller and
demonstrates his mastery of his material . . . Magnificent . . . Important and impressiveDaily Telegraph
-
A compelling yarn about people whose achievement may have been limited, but whose courage was that of giants
Max Hastings, Sunday Times
-
Freedland displays the forensic skills of a detective, allied to the penmanship of a thriller writer . . . A fascinating story of bravery and morality against overwhelming odds
Irish Times
-
Gripping and terrifying
Ian Hislop
-
A riveting story with an incredible, ensemble cast . . . I want to urge everyone to read this book. It's gripping, it's enormously entertaining - it's got so much to teach us
Tina Brown
-
An engrossing narrative . . . a spellbinding account
Wall Street Journal
-
The thrilling story of a group of anti-Nazi activists in wartime Berlin . . . an inquiry into how, in the direst circumstances, some people find the immense courage to do what is right
The Economist, Books of the Year
-
Freedland tells the story of Solf and her friends with the vividness of the thrillers he also writes under the name Sam Bourne. What makes his account of these Germans who refused to conform so important in our own time is that it shows that even the most iniquitous regime doesn't corrupt everyone
The Spectator
-
A compelling account
TLS
-
Constructed like a thriller but has all the poignancy and punch of a true story
Engelsberg
-
Utterly gripping - and brilliantly told
Dominic Sandbrook
User Reviews
Book 5.0
Narration 5.0
-
5.0 5.0
This is nonfiction, about German resistors to the Nazi regime, and the Gestapo spy who betrayed them. In Freedland’s preface, he tells how his mother boycotted German products, and makes the point that not all Germans were complicit and that there were German resistors. Even after listening to this excellent book, I don’t feel that he made any case against his mother’s attitude. Yes, some Germans resisted, but they were nevertheless a small percentage of the population, but more important regarding boycotting German manufactured products, the companies who manufactured the products his mother was boycotting were overwhelmingly among those who either benefited from or directly manufactured for the Nazi regime. (For example, he said his family wouldn’t buy a Mercedes-Benz; well, M-B manufactured engines for U-Boats and used slave labor.) These companies came off with maybe a slap on the wrist and it took decades for them to acknowledge their guilt, but that isn’t really the story that Freedland wishes to tell. He focuses on a particular group of anti-Nazi Germans and what they suffered as a result of one of them being too trusting and off-guard. The last chapters relate what became of the betrayer (I won’t spoil the end). Freedland narrates the book himself and does a fine job, though I found that sometimes he drops his voice at the end of a sentence and I have to rewind a bit to catch those words. I would have liked to hear more about the actual acts of resistance.
debbyk 2026-01-02
Details
- Author
- Jonathan Freedland
- Narrator
- Jonathan Freedland
- Duration
- 12 hours 41 minutes
- Release Date
- 11 September 2025
- ISBN
- 9781399813716
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- John Murray Press
- Genre
- History: theory and methods, Second World War, History
- Rating
- 5.0(1 review)
- Narration
- 5.0(1 review)
Synopsis
THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERFROM THE AUTHOR OF THE ESCAPE ARTISTA THE ECONOMIST BOOK OF THE YEAR'Magnificent . . . Important and impressive' DAILY TELEGRAPH'Astonishing . . . Freedland is a master'MICK HERRON'Remarkable . . . This is how the best history books will be written in the future'ANDREW ROBERTS'Utterly gripping - and brilliantly told'DOMINIC SANDBROOK'Excellent . . . Perfect reading for this moment'ANNE APPLEBAUM'Utterly gripping, brilliantly researched and written'ANTHONY HOROWITZ'Compelling'MAX HASTINGS, SUNDAY TIMES'Thrilling, humane, and deeply moving . . . Not to be missed'DAVID McCLOSKEY'Totally gripping and timely'JONATHAN DIMBLEBYWhen the whole world is lying, someone must tell the truth.Berlin, 1943. A group of high-society anti-Nazi dissenters meet for a tea party one late summer afternoon. They do not know that, sitting around the table, is someone poised to betray them all to the Gestapo - revealing their secret to the Nazis' most ruthless detective.They form a circle of unlikely rebels, drawn from the German elite: two countesses, a diplomat, an intelligence officer, an ambassador's widow and a pioneering headmistress. Meeting in the shadows, rescuing Jews or plotting for a future Germany freed from the Führer's rule, what unites them is a shared loathing of the Nazis, a refusal to bow to Hitler and the courage to perform perilous acts of resistance. Or so they believe.How did a group of brave, principled rebels, who had successfully defied Adolf Hitler for more than a decade, come to fall into such a lethal trap? And who betrayed them?Undone from within and pursued to near-destruction by one of the Reich's cruellest men, they showed a heroism that raises a question with new urgency for our time: what kind of person does it take to risk everything and stand up to tyranny?
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