Forthcoming Winter 2027

In modern-day Zurich, 14-year-old Dane comes home from boarding school to console his dad, Erich, who has just lost his partner, Klaus, to Alzheimer’s. As Dane reclaims his old room where his father died, he discovers a cache of hidden documents, including passports from East Germany, Italy, and Switzerland. He has a lot of questions, and his dad has a lot of secrets. He discovers Klaus was an East German agent who recruited Erich, a priest, to gather intelligence on the Vatican. The story spans pivotal years of the Cold War and the circumstances that inspired an affluent Swiss man and a well-connected American priest to spy on the Catholic Church.  During their secret collaboration, Erich and Klaus grow fond of one another. But a handsome priest, Tristan, complicates matters as Erich falls for him, not realizing that his family has ties to right-wing interests in Latin America.  Erich struggles to stay true to his priestly vows despite the powerful erotic tug of both Klaus and Tristan. Klaus must make quick decisions when the Berlin Wall falls, and Erich faces a crossroads when the Catholic Church amplifies its condemnation of gay people at the same time. Can the two of them start a quiet domestic life in Zurich, or will their pasts haunt them?  How does a 14-year-old teen process startling revelations after the death of his father?  Set in East Germany, Switzerland, Rome, Washington, Miami, and Central America, romance and international intrigue fill the fast-moving plot. The narrative captures the deep fissures of an age, one where the fight for justice clashed with US and Vatican attempts to defeat Communism, where AIDS shattered long-concealed sexual closets, where public revelations of corruption and misbehavior eroded confidence in noble institutions, and, ironically, where subversives were often beacons of light.