It could have been a common street accident that put Dr. Georg Amberg in the hos
pital, but for the five weeks his doctors say he has been in a coma, recovering
from a brain hemorrhage after being run down by a car, he has memories of a more
disturbing nature. What of the violent events in the rural village of Morwede?
The old woman threatening the priest with a breadknife, angry peasants with flai
ls and cudgels, Baron von Malchin with a pistol defending his dreams for the Hol
y Roman Empire--how could Dr. Amberg ignore these? And what of the secret experi
ment to make a mind-altering drug from a white mildew occurring on wheat--a mild
ew called Saint Peter's Snow.
In this feverish tale of a man caught in the bal
ance between two realities, Leo Pertuz offers a mystery of identity and a fable
of faith and political fervor, banned by the Nazis when it was first published i
n 1933. "Saint Peter's Snow" is typical of Perutz's storytelling mastery: extrao
rdinarily rich and elegant fiction that is taut with suspense, full of Old World
irony and humor.
