Critically acclaimed novel of imposture and identity where no one is who he claims to be and destinies hang on a game of chess . . .
1916: Victor Kretzchmar and Thadeus Dreyer face each other over a chess board, on a train heading to the Austro-Hungarian Empire's disastrous Eastern Front. The stakes are high: the winner takes Kretzchmar's identity as a railway signalman and lives out the war in safety. The loser goes to certain death.
1943: General Thadeus Dreyer, hero of WW1, is in charge of the Amphitryon Project, training doubles to stand in for leading Nazis at dangerous public events. When the Project falls out of favour, he and the doubles disappear.
1960: Adolf Eichmann, a master chess player, is arrested in Buenos Aires, living under an assumed name. One of the few escaped Nazis to be recaptured, he is extradited to Israel and hanged. Years later, an old Polish Count seems to know the truth of his identity.
Who are these men?