The Feeling of Iron

NEW YORK TIMES 100 NOTABLE BOOK OF 2025・NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE

From the horrors of WWII to the spy games of the Cold War: a haunting tale of survival, vengeance, and the enduring shadows of history

“Stunning... Every line is a jewel.”—Lea Carpenter, New York Times

Shlomo Libowitz and Anton Epstein, two Jewish prisoners subjected to horrific experiments in a Nazi concentration camp, survive the unimaginable. Decades later, their lives converge again as they hunt Hans Lichtblau, the SS officer who tormented them, now operating in the shadowy world of Cold War geopolitics.   

Their pursuit takes them from the ashes of Europe to the jungles of Central America, where justice and revenge blur against the backdrop of CIA conspiracies and a haunting past. But one life may be too short to settle all accounts, and Anton and Shlomo’s belated revenge is also a race against time...  

With vivid characters and a masterful blend of fact and fiction, perfectly balanced between two continents and two eras, The Feeling of Iron confronts the moral ambiguities of vengeance and the inescapable echoes of history.