Author Jack Mayer will discuss the history of Germany from the end of World War I and Germany's fledgling Weimar democracy to the rise of the Third Reich. This talk, presented in conjunction with the Vermont Humanities Council and the Flying Pig Bookstore, is the product of extensive research for his new historical novel, Before the Court of Heaven. His book is based on the true story of a fascist assassin, Ernst Werner Techow and his turning from evil. Three themes impel this novel: understanding the rise of Nazism, unfathomable forgiveness, and the complexity of redemption. A portrait of Germany between world wars, from revolution and unrest following World War I to the rise of the Nazis, World War II and the Holocaust, Before the Court of Heaven portrays ordinary people becoming complicit in extraordinary crimes.

Co-sponsored by the Vermont Humanities Council and Recycled Reading.