Girl with Parasol is a suspenseful novel about looting of Jewish-owned artworks by the Nazis during World War II. These crimes hit the headlines in 2013 with the discovery of an art cache in Munich, and in 2014 with the release of George Clooney's film The Monuments Men. "Girl with Parasol" is the name of a portrait painted by Monet in 1905. It shows a girl with a white parasol standing on a bridge above a lily pond. The model was the daughter of Monet's art dealer, Tania Wertheimer. When the Germans invade France in 1940, Tania's daughter Corinne keeps the painting hidden. The Nazis...

LIVES FALL APART WHEN THE STASI ARCHIVES ARE OPENED Berlin 1989. The Wall comes down, the regime collapses, the secret police files are opened. In communist East Germany, people spent their lives looking over their shoulders. Anyone could be an informant for the dreaded Stasi. Friends informed on friends, children on parents, husbands on wives. Everything they said went into the files. Matthias, a cellist, and Anne, a violinist, spent five years together in Leipzig. They played music, and stayed out of politics. Until Anne was killed in a car crash in France, they were happy. At least, that's...