THE SERPENT BEARER

Rosenthal presents a World War II–era adventure novel, set mostly in the Yucatán jungle in the 1940s.

Early on, a frame story introduces an elderly Solly Meisner living in North Carolina in 2008, exasperating both his daughter, Izzy, and his full-time caregiver with his stubborn independence. During an episode of dementia, he begins to reveal long-kept secrets about his past that lead Izzy, a retired archaeologist, to question everything she think she knows about her family. Most of the story, however, takes place in 1941, in the months before the invasion of Pearl Harbor and shortly after Solly has, by chance, survived a bombing that targeted his band of brigadistas fighting in the Spanish Civil War. A U.S. government agent with the Office of the Coordinator of Information sends Solly to spy on suspected Nazi activity in Mexico, blackmailing him into doing so by threatening to expose Solly’s record as a Communist Party member and revolutionary fighter in Spain. The young lawyer accepts, but he’s certain that the mission will end with his death. In a dilapidated hacienda in the Yucatán, he meets three other Jewish exiles who’ve fled horrors in Europe, some bored expats, and, eventually, Nazi operatives. In addition to chapters from the perspectives of Solly and Izzy, readers get scenes in diary entries of Solly’s aristocratic ex-lover, Estelle, and from the point of view of Grace Weintraub, a Hollywood script doctor. Each narrative voice is distinctive, and the characters and settings throughout are beautifully drawn, from care facilities to remote hotels: “The first-floor patio was abuzz with chatter, a flurry of waiters running around like mad, supplying distraught guests with mineral water or spirits.” The various mysteries unfold at a gratifying pace, and the frame story generates tension between the past and present; readers get action sequences worthy of 1940s Hollywood, as well as an examination of the lingering effects of past choices.

A consistently compelling war story that expertly balances multiple plotlines and perspectives.