The Cabal Question

by Michael Rectenwald

A provocative psychological thriller follows a former professor of history turned historical revisionist whose life fractures after a friend’s desperate outburst thrusts him into the JQ. A former academic, he now sifts through the past’s buried truths and official history's lies, moving from Europe’s storied cities to America’s urban sprawl and the idyllic Amish and Mennonite farmlands of South-Central Pennsylvania. In a dystopia where surveillance is unrelenting and historiography bows to power, he partners with an enigmatic and knowing Dutch translator and a steadfast ex-occultist turned Christian nationalist to trace the strands of the cabal's reach. Each revelation pulls him deeper into a maze of danger and discovery.

Michael Rectenwald, Ph.D., a former NYU Professor turned fierce cultural critic, builds a narrative that marries intellectual depth with relentless suspense. Drawing on historical revisionism and thinkers like Friedrich Nietzsche, Michel Foucault, George Orwell, and Hans-Hermann Hoppe, The Cabal Question explores the workings of propaganda, the ethics of resistance, and the contested domain of historical truth. Through safe houses, border crossings, and secretive talks in rural refuges, the story wrestles with the forces—be they a hidden elite, a crafted narrative, or the mind’s own distortions—that mold the present. The revisionist’s vision, both asset and peril, propels a clash with the state and his own legacy. Rectenwald’s incisive prose delivers a stark reflection on identity, faith, and the cost of forbidden knowledge. The saga challenges official narratives, disorienting the reader, and prompting questions about what’s true in the stories that shape the landscape of the reader’s mind.

205 pages, Hardcover

Published April 12, 2025

Reviews

[Rick Stuckwisch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly not sure what to make of this book, or what to think if it. The ending was rather abrupt and disappointing, but overall the book was engaging and interesting I've enjoyed the author's non-fiction works, largely aimed at a critique of "Wokeism" in its many and various forms. So, I was curious to check out this work of fiction. I suppose the biggest challenge is deciphering where it is a fictional narrative and where the author is intending to offer his own "revisionist" history and an analysis of real politics. The storyline feels like a vehicle and a platform for the author's own political and social views, especially as the main character's profile is highly similar to the author's own life and circumstances. But it's not clear, and it's hard to say whether the lines between fact and fiction in the book are blurred or ambiguous. Even so, it is an engaging and thought-provoking book, and it's also a relatively short and quick read.