The Traitors Circle
- Author Jonathan Freedland
- Narrator Jonathan Freedland
- Publisher John Murray Press
- Publish Date 11 September 2025
- Run Time 12 hours and 41 minutes
- Format Audio
- Genre History, History: theory and methods, Second World War.
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What to expect
THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
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
'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?
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
'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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Spectacular. The compelling true story of raw human courage in the face of the ultimate evil. A page-turning, heartbreaker of a book
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
Utterly gripping, brilliantly researched and written
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 impressive
demonstrates his mastery of his material . . . Magnificent . . . Important and impressive
A compelling yarn about people whose achievement may have been limited, but whose courage was that of giants
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
Gripping and terrifying
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
An engrossing narrative . . . a spellbinding account
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
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