What if the Nazis had won the Second World War — but we didn’t know it?

Inspired by declassified US Intelligence reports. A sinister conspiracy thriller based on 1944 US intelligence documents which reveal how Nazi leaders planned a Fourth Reich - not a military empire, but an economic one.

Nazi-occupied Budapest, winter 1944. The Russians are smashing through the German lines. Miklos Farkas breaks out of the Jewish ghetto to find food - at the Nazis’ headquarters. There he is handed a stolen copy of The Budapest Protocol, detailing the Nazis post-war plans. Miklos knows it must stay hidden for ever if he is to stay alive. The book jumps to present day Budapest. As the European Union launches the election campaign for the first President of Europe, Miklos Farkas is brutally murdered. His journalist grandson Alex buries his grief to track down the killers. He soon unravels a chilling conspiracy rooted in the dying days of the Third Reich, one that will ensure Nazi economic domination of Europe - and a plan for a new Gypsy Holocaust.

The hunt is on for The Budapest Protocol. Alex is soon drawn deeper into a deadly web of intrigue and power play, a game played for the highest stakes: the very future of Europe. But Alex too is haunted. He must battle his own demons as he uncovers a shadowy alliance that the world thought had been defeated for good. Powerful, controversial and thought-provoking, The Budapest Protocol is a journey into Europe's hidden heart of darkness.

A proportion of the profits from the publication of the The Budapest Protocol will be donated to the charity Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture..

“A fascinating, poignant, subtle portrait of the United States itself.” — Simon Sebag-Montefiore.

It was in luxurious Palm Beach, by the manicured lawns and Olympic-sized swimming pools, that financier Bernard Madoff ravaged the world of philanthropy and high society he had strived so hard to join, vaporising the assets of charities, foundations and individuals that had trusted him with their funds. It seems nothing was sacrosanct to Madoff, possibly the greatest con-man in history. Even Elie Wiesel's foundation has lost tens of millions. How could Madoff, a pillar of the Jewish community, do this to a Nobel Laureate and Auschwitz survivor? But Wiesel was hardly alone in trusting the rogue financier. How could some of the most sophisticated and worldly people in America fall victim to a collective delusion for year after year?

The Believers answers these unsettling questions. It opens up the clubbish world where Madoff operated, tracing the links from Palm Beach and The Hamptons to the salons and clubs of Manhattan society. It details the network of relationships across which flows hundreds of millions of dollars. 'The Believers' shows how despite material success and acclaim, some human impulses remain eternal. It reveals how an underlying sense of insecurity still shapes some of the richest and most successful individuals in America, making them crave ever more status and peer acclaim. By focusing on Madoff's connection to, and catastrophic impact on, the American Jewish community, The Believers dramatically humanises a story that is part financial scandal and part Greek tragedy.

  • My interview with Sarah Peters on the Guardian's Sounds Jewish podcast (scroll to 03.54).
  • A fascinating, poignant, subtle portrait of the United States itself.
    Simon Sebag-Montefiore, Sunday Telegraph books of the year
  • In these turbulent times we want a morality tale, dressed up with glamour and glitz, about how Madoff seduced and shafted the rich, sophisticated and stupid. LeBor stumps up these rewards in a lively story that will satisfy even the economically illiterate.
    Iain Finlayson, The Times
  • Adam LeBor's excellent book, written with perfect restraint, explores how it came to pass that a staggering $65 billion imploded in December 2008 when Madoff admitted that his investment business was "one big lie?"...It neatly chronicles the many shades of complicity. It is stuffed with finely detailed tales of hubris and hypocrisy.
    Laura Slattery, Irish Times
  • This book brilliantly answers the "How" question about Bernie Madoff and his giant Ponzi scheme...Bernie played the Jewish card at every opportunity and the Jews fell for it.'
    Bryan Appleyard, New Statesman
  • An analysis of how Bernard Madoff developed a sophisticated network of contacts across Jewish charities, universities, synagogues and country clubs and stole their money.
    The Economist
  • A distinctive analysis of Madoff's motivation in the context of his position in the American Jewish community...LeBor has a nice final image of Madoff working in the engraving shop of Butner federal prison in North Carolina, where he is likely to spend the rest of his life.
    Martin Vander Weyer, The Spectator
  • A spendid analysis of...the worst swindler in history.
    City Spy, London Evening Standard
  • A clear and concise account of Madoff's scam...A master of the art of "affinity fraud", LeBor reminds us, Madoff targeted his fellow Jews.
    Glenn Altschuler, Jerusalem Post
  • Adam LeBor's absorbing, chilling book...fills us in on some of the details we otherwise only imagine about Madoff's affinity scam.
    Bernard Avishai, Talking Points Memo
  • LeBor calls Madoff a modern "shtarker", or gangster, who used technology, charm and brilliant social connections to rule, and, ultimately, destroy. His motivation was deep and determined - the result speaks for itself.
    Zoe Strimpel, City A.M
  • A great book and very easy to read. It is a manual for confidence tricksters and you just know it could all easily happen again...I can't recommend it highly enough.
    Peter Wade, Amazon Top 1000 Reviewer

Selected by the American Association of University Presses as an "Outstanding" title.

From the killing fields of Rwanda and Srebrenica a decade ago to those of Darfur today, the United Nations has repeatedly failed to confront genocide. This is evinced in a May 1995 document from Yasushi Akashi, the most senior UN official in the field during the Yugoslav wars, in which he refused to authorize air strikes against the Serbs for fear they would 'weaken' Milosevic. More recently, in 2003, urgent reports from UN officials in the Sudan detailing atrocities from Darfur were ignored for a year because they were politically inconvenient.

This book is the first to examine in detail the crucial role of the Secretariat, its relationship with the Security Council, and the failure of UN officials themselves to confront genocide. LeBor argues the UN must return to its founding principles, take a moral stand and set the agenda of the Security Council instead of merely following the lead of the great powers.

Based on dozens of first-hand interviews with UN officials, current and former, and international statesmen and women including Madeleine Albright, Richard Holbrooke, Douglas Hurd, and David Owen.

  • Interview with Khatchig Mouradian on Znet.
  • Discussion of the United Nations and human rights with James Naughtie, of the BBC Today programme.
  • My discussion of Complicity with Evil with Kojo Nnamdi of Washington DC radio station WAMU (scroll down to 13.24).
  • Listen to the Yale University Press podcast, and my discussion with host Chris Gondek.
  • Listen to me discuss Complicity with Evil with Leonard Lopate, of New York radio station a WNYC.
  • LeBor is unflinching in his analysis of the failings of the Security Council but also the Secretariat.... His greatest strength is that he avoids ranting polemic, making his judgments with care and always backing them up with evidence.
    Fergal Keane, Mail on Sunday
  • LeBor chronicles the UN's pusillanimity in the face of mass murder in Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Darfur... [he] writes honestly and vividly.
    Daniel Hannan, The Daily Telegraph
  • LeBor shows how Omar al-Bashir, the Sudanese president, has emulated the success of Slobodan Milosevic in running rings round the international community, exploiting its divisions and lack of collective will... and skilfully presenting himself as part of the solution when in reality he is the very heart of the problem.
    Edward Mortimer, The Guardian
  • All these [UN] absurdities and many more are brilliantly captured in Adam LeBor's compelling indictment.
    Brendan Simms, The Evening Standard
  • A riveting if depressing account of the UN's failure to act on the knowledge that mass murder is taking place.
    Nick Cohen, The Observer
  • LeBor pulls no punches in his indictment of the UN under Annan. With key documents to hand, he rightly identifies the main failings of the system as its lack of accountability and a cult of neutrality in which "all sides are guilty"
    Anne Penketh, The Independent
  • Cuts through the the usual waffle and shirking of responsibility officials offer to excuse their gross inadequacy. In a driving and angry tale, he tells the story of each of these three mass murders: who did what to whom, and who failed in their duty to stop them.
    Carne Ross, openDemocracy
  • For the new man in the UN's top chair, Ban Ki-moon, this book is essential reading. For the rest of us, it is a clear-sighted look at how one of our greatest collective endeavours is riddled with our most basic human flaws.
    Daniel McLaughlin, The Irish Times
  • LeBor takes direct aim at U.N. civil servants, arguing that, in the face of genocide in the Balkans and Africa, they have not stood up on behalf of the helpless... Instead of taking personal responsibility, many U.N. officials engage in what LeBor rightly condemns as "buck passing".
    Samantha Power, Washington Post
  • A devastating indictment of Annan's lamentable record.
    Daniel Johnson, New York Sun
  • History's judgement of the UN Secretariat and Darfur has already been superbly initiated by by Adam LeBor... LeBor has drawn a ruthless portrait of instutional indifference... an immensely important book.
    Eric Reeves, www.sudanreeves.org
  • LeBor demonstrates a pattern of appeasement, feeble response mechanisms, inertia, bureaucratic infighting within the Secretariat, and lack of political will by the Security Council to stop the killing.
    www.unforum.com

Scrupulously fair to both sides — The Sunday Times

The ancient city of Jaffa was for centuries the main port of the eastern Mediterranean, a city of traders, merchants, teachers and administrators, home to Muslims, Christians and Jews, while the produce of its orange groves was famed throughout the world. It was in Jaffa that Peter the apostle was said to have raised Dorcas from the dead, and where Richard the Lionheart defeated Saladin. It was here, too, that Napoleon stormed ashore in 1799, while from 1920 the British administered the city under the Mandate. It is in 1920 that City of Oranges begins.

Through the stories of six families - three Arab and three Jewish - City of Oranges illuminates the underlying complexity of modern Israel, telling the story from the Ashkenazi as well as from the very different Sephardic point of view, and from Christian Arab as well as from the Muslim perspective. Through the eyes of these families we understand how the founding of the state of Israel was simultaneously a moment of jubilation for the Jews, and a disaster - the Naqba - for the 100,000 Arabs who fled Jaffa in 1948, most of them never to return.

Read an extract from the first chapter of City of Oranges, as Julia Chelouche, a young Jewish woman, prepares for her wedding in Jaffa in the spring of 1921. But the city is about to explode into violence.

  • Discuss City of Oranges with Julie Burstein on The Leonard Lopate show on WNYC.
  • Listen to me discuss City of Oranges with Moreover, the Economist's new arts blog.
  • Listen to me discuss City of Oranges with Andrew Singer of Budapest-based Liquid Books - a 57-minute interview with musical breaks by Khaled and Malka Spigel, Didier Malherbe, and Natacha Atlas & Nitin Sawhney. You may also find interesting the Liquid Books arhive.
  • LeBor is scrupulously fair to both sides. Based on interviews with several generations of Muslim, Jewish and Christian families, his book is a moving testament to the resilience of human beings in the face of violence.
    Sunday Times, Paperback Pick of the Week
  • LeBor is an unusually skillful collector of tales, an abundantly empathetic listener. Like a good saga, City of Oranges draws the reader in to know the fate of each of the families.
    Esther Solomon, Haaretz
  • Honest, direct narrative, based on scrupulous reporting with real historical depth. Shows what could happen if only the fundies and zealots would try peace.
    Denis MacShane, Prospect Magazine Books of the Year, 2006
  • Outstanding... a clear-eyed study of one of the great cities of the eastern Mediterranean... an excellent and courageous book.
    Mark Cocker, The Guardian
  • This book is for anyone who loves the Middle East, but also for those who do not yet know it... LeBor succeeds in telling us the story of ordinary people living in extraordinary times, and by doing that, tells us the painful story of Palestine itself.
    Janine di Giovanni, The Independent on Sunday
  • The most significent recent contribution to the literature. The curious reader with no ideological axe to grind, but an interest in the people and their fate could do no better than start here... it is in the stories that the future lies and Adam LeBor has magnificently and sympathetically told them.
    Linda Grant, The Independent
  • City of Oranges brings us something quite different: the sound of ordinary people trying to get on with their lives in the middle of interminable conflict.
    Anthony Sattin, The Sunday Times
  • Some writers have a way with words, others an unerring nose for research. LeBor has both - plus compassion for the sufferings on all sides.
    Madeleine Kingsley, The Jewish Chronicle
  • An astute and balanced history of the area with real people... LeBor brilliantly tells us how we got there.
    David Aaronovitch, The Times
  • Engrossing... LeBor uses the deeply moving experience of individuals as a lens through which to explore the complex history of Israel and Palestine in the twentieth century.
    Melissa McClements, Financial Times, Summer Reads 2006
  • This is an enjoyable and useful book for everyone browsing through the hitherto unknown pages of the life of Jaffa's Arab society.
    Eyad Abushakra, Asharq Alawsat
  • LeBor writes Jaffa's past as a sprawling family saga... City of Oranges is an engaging, well-constructed book.
    Gershom Gorenberg, New York Times, Editor's Choice
  • Some readers will argue with some opinions Mr. LeBor records... But few will find a more humane account of one of history's more dehumanizing stories.
    Emily L. Hauser, Dallas Morning News
  • This is narrative journalism at its best: in-depth reporting that reads like well-written fiction, well-researched and with rich detail, but never over-zealously academic or tedious, providing broad historical context, complexity and insight.
    Eetta Prince-Gibson, Jerusalem Report
  • [A] gripping, dynamic history of the city of Jaffa... LeBor shows us how these conflicts blend together to create a functioning, imperfect, vital community in the Middle East.
    Jewish Book World, Winter 2007
  • English journalist LeBor (The Times) has achieved the near-impossible... Dotted with delightful period details, it gives individual opinion free rein, reporting contradictions without judgment... those looking for a well-rounded and truly human insight into the conflict will enjoy this account.
    Starred review, Publishers Weekly
  • From extensive personal interviews, memoirs, and private archives, [LeBor] creates vivid portraits of these six families to illustrate the narrative of twentieth-century Arab-Jewish and Palestinian-Israeli relations... With striking conviction and eloquence, the six families share with LeBor their extraordinary, centuries-old histories and diasporas as they found themselves on different sides of violently divisive issues and events while living within this small, seaside city.
    Starred review, Booklist
  • Drawing on the memories of Jewish, Muslim and Christian families with roots in the ancient Arab city, journalist LeBor does much to give a sense of the "intricacy of a century-old struggle."... A provocative, ultimately hopeful view of a tormented place.
    Kirkus Reviews 
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the_believers/           
surviving_hitler/        
milosevic/               
hitler's_secret_bankers/ 
complicity_with_evil/    
city_of_oranges/         
a_heart_turned_east/     
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