The Night of Shooting Stars

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by Ben Pastor


  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  The Night of Shooting Stars is a work of fiction. However, the failed attempt on Hitler’s life of 20 July 1944 is a historical fact. Nebe, Canaris, Beck, Oster, Goerdeler, Heldorff, Tresckow, Bonhoeffer, Olbertz, Haeften, the two Schulenburgs and Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg are real characters. All of them paid with their lives for their conspiracy against the Nazi regime, some immediately, on the night of 20 July, many others only towards the end of the war, after suffering torture, trials and imprisonment. In the novel, Martin Bora’s conversations with Nebe and Stauffenberg are fictional; however, I tried to create them based on what we know of their world views, especially regarding society and Germany.

  Countless historians (Hoffmann, Molloy Mason, Benz and Pehle among others) point out that the conspirators, largely from a military and aristocratic background, dramatically differed on matters of politics, ethics and personal outlook. Such contrasts transpire from the memoirs by two men who resisted, Hans Bernd Gisevius and Philipp von Boeselager – two of the few who survived the purge.

  In light of this, it is fair to wonder whether internal conflicts and operational differences, added to a touch of narcissism and the well-attested occasional cases of careless indiscretion, contributed to the failure of Stauffenberg’s coup.

  Historians do not agree on the subject. My personal belief is that we may never undo this historiographic knot.

  At any rate, as Gisevius writes at the end of one of his memoirs, To those whose ashes have been scattered, let us at least leave their unsullied faith in a better world.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  My research before and during the drafting of the novel, especially as regards Berlin in 1944 and the context of the 20 July plot, owes much to many, in many countries. My gratitude goes to the Deutsches Bundesarchiv (Section R and Section MA), to the Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand, to Robert Kirchner, Ernest Gill; and, for their studies, to Norman Ohler, Richard Bassett, Mel Gordon, Robert P. Watson and Danny Orbach. Additionally, a heartfelt thank you to the staff of Libreria Militare in Milan, to General Giorgio Battisti, Barbara Biagi, Marina Pagnussat, Silvia Musso, Marco Patricelli, Lia Beretta, Mariano Del Preite, Francesca Marcelli, Paola Pallottino, Giorgio Galli, Cesare Carrà, and to the best supporters: my translator from English, Luigi Sanvito, and my literary agent, Piergiorgio Nicolazzini.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Ben Pastor, born in Italy, became a US citizen after moving to Texas. She lived for thirty years in the United States, working as a university professor in Illinois, Ohio and Vermont, and currently spends part of the year in her native country. The Night of Shooting Stars is the seventh in the Martin Bora series and follows on from the success of The Horseman’s Song, Road to Ithaca, Tin Sky, A Dark Song of Blood, Liar Moon and Lumen, also published by Bitter Lemon Press. Ben Pastor is the author of other novels including the highly acclaimed The Water Thief and The Fire Waker, and is considered one of the most talented writers in the field of historical fiction. In 2008 she won the Premio Zaragoza for best historical fiction, and in 2018 she was awarded the prestigious Premio Internazionale di Letteratura Ennio Flaiano.

  Also available from Bitter Lemon Press by Ben Pastor:

  Lumen

  Liar Moon

  A Dark Song of Blood

  Tin Sky

  The Road to Ithaca

  The Horseman’s Song

  COPYRIGHT

  BITTER LEMON PRESS

  First published in the United Kingdom in 2020 by

  Bitter Lemon Press, 47 Wilmington Square, London wc1x 0et

  www.bitterlemonpress.com

  Copyright © 2018 by Ben Pastor

  This edition published in agreement with Piergiorgio

  Nicolazzini Literary Agency (PNLA)

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without written permission of the publisher.

  Translation of Friederich Hölderlin’s ‘Der Ister’ on p.11 by Richard Sieburth, from Friederich Hölderlin: Hymns and Fragments, Princeton University Press, 1984

  The moral rights of Ben Pastor have been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988

  A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

  ISBN 978–1–912242–28–3

  eBook ISBN 978–1–912242–44–3

  Typeset by Tetragon

  Printed and bound by the CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, cr0 4yy

 

 

 


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