Escaping Berlin received a 4+ star review, making it an IndieReader Approved title.
Following find an interview with author Brent Monahan.
What is the name of the book and when was it published?
Escaping Berlin; December 1, 2022
What’s the book’s first line?
I WAS ONE AMONG THE MILLIONS of young men sacrificed in serving the war machine of the Third Reich.
What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.
Although set in the capital of the Third Reich in the closing days of W. W. II, Escaping Berlin is not a war story. It is a detective thriller that also investigates vital existential questions such as “How could citizens of the country that considered itself the most advanced and cultured at the time have allowed themselves to become Hitler’s willing mechanized executioners, in spite of his having published his insane manifesto in Mein Kampf?” and “Is there any situation that morally justifies sacrificing conscience to survive?”
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
My inspiration was from viewing at Rutgers University films of the Nazi death camps taken by Swedish occupying forces.
What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
To understand what Benjamin Franklin meant by “Those who give up liberty for security deserve neither.”
What’s the most distinctive thing about the main character? Who-real or fictional-would you say the character reminds you of?
My protagonist, Reinhardt Schmidt, is Everyman, not just an unwilling Wehrmacht soldier. He is based on the next-door neighbor of my youth, who was actually wounded on the Eastern Front, shipped back to Berlin for surgery and recovery, and who found himself trapped within its barb-wire borders. He supplied hours of reminiscences, which he allowed me to capture on tape.
When did you first decide to become an author?
I wrote a sci fi novel 53 years ago, but I was too naïve to understand I needed an agent. I “threw it over the transom” a half-dozen times, then gave up for years.
Is this the first book you’ve written?
Escaping Berlin is my twentieth novel, seventeen of which have been published. Two were made into motion pictures, with Peter Fonda/Oliver Reed and Sissy Spacek/Donald Sutherland, and two more optioned for film.
What do you do for work when you’re not writing? (see next answer)
Except for four years writing dialogue for ABC-Daytime’s One Life to Live and All My Children and for two books on singing (I have my DMA from Indiana University), writing has been my avocation.
How much time do you generally spend on your writing?
When I worked for an educational publishing house and served on university faculty, my indulgent wife (who also worked outside the home) took care of the house and children from 7-11 p.m. on Mondays through Friday, with occasional hours during the weekend.
What’s the best and the hardest part of being an indie?
The best part is that I can write about topics that interest me instead of being tied to a certain readership. For example, when I was a large publisher writer and had two high-selling vampire novels, I followed with The Jekyl Island Club, an historical murder mystery. My editor told me I needed to make the Southern sheriff a vampire because of my fan base. I refused, and the novel has been in print for twenty years, sold more than 45,000 copies, and created a five-book series. The worst part is not having the publicity power and sales force of a major house. No one can buy a book they don’t know exists.
Which writer, living or dead, do you most admire?
I most admire Charles Dickens, because of the felicity of his language control, his keen observation of humanity, and his themes of social and societal justice.
Which book do you wish you could have written?
I am one of a mass of readers who count To Kill A Mockingbird as one of the greatest novels of all time. The moral lesson is unassailable. I particularly like how Atticus Finch gives not a moment of equivocation when the rabid dog appears but shoots it dead with a single shot. He is a realist, who cares not if he is criticized or shunned when he knows what is both necessary and morally right.