Who is Saul Burg? How does a fierce man with a shrouded past become Special High Representative to the UN Secretary-General, responsible for coordinating humanitarian work in failed states? 

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In 1954, deep in Israel’s Negev Desert, Palestinian fedayeen massacred the occupants of a bus trundling through the hills between Eilat and Beersheba.  The sole survivor, eight-year-old Saul, suddenly orphaned, was placed with a German kibbutz in Galilee, growing up in a rich cultural envelope. As he matured and rationalised the moment his parents were killed, a contempt for terrorists accompanied him into adulthood.

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The military call up pivoted him from farming to fighting and a lifelong confrontation with terrorism began.

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As an Israeli special forces soldier, he killed terrorists covertly; as an operative with Mossad, he eliminated still more.

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Saul transitioned from Mossad hitman to spy master. Germany’s ambassador in Tel Aviv took notice of his abilities and arranged recruitment into Germany’s Intelligence Service. A decade later, 9/11 brought Saul Burg a further assignment—a post in Berlin to advance Germany’s contribution to the global war on terror.

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Sixty years after the bus massacre, hardened by a lifetime spent battling terrorism’s darkness, yet pursuing enlightened thinking, and sometimes falling under the influence of strong women, Saul relocates from Berlin to Geneva to oversee UN humanitarian work.

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Working with him in Geneva is Blake Caldwell, a tech-savvy young assistant. Blake builds databases to track the global humanitarian effort; his search tools uncover names ...

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This gripping novel with two interwoven timelines explores Saul’s enduring fight against terrorism and Blake’s quest to unravel his identity.