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The Torqued Man
A brilliant debut novel, at once teasing literary thriller and a darkly comic blend of history and invention, The Torqued Man is set in wartime Berlin and propelled by two very different but equally mesmerizing voices: a German spy handler and his Irish secret agent, neither of whom are quite what they seem.
Berlin--September, 1945. Two manuscripts are found in rubble, each one narrating conflicting versions of the life of an Irish spy during the war.
One of them is the journal of a German military intelligence officer and would-be opponent of Hitler named Adrian de Groot, charting his relationship with his agent, friend, and sometimes lover, an Irishman named Frank Pike. In de Groot's narrative, Pike is a charismatic IRA fighter sprung from prison in Spain to assist with the planned German invasion of Ireland, but who never gets the chance to consummate his deal with the devil.
Meanwhile, the other manuscript gives a very different account of the Irishman's doings in the Reich. Assuming the alter ego of the Celtic hero Finn McCool, Pike appears here as the ultimate Allied saboteur. His mission: an assassination campaign of high-ranking Nazi doctors, culminating in the killing of Hitler's personal physician.
The two manuscripts spiral around each other, leaving only the reader to know the full truth of Pike and de Groot's relationship, their ultimate loyalties, and their efforts to resist the fascist reality in which they are caught.
Berlin--September, 1945. Two manuscripts are found in rubble, each one narrating conflicting versions of the life of an Irish spy during the war.
One of them is the journal of a German military intelligence officer and would-be opponent of Hitler named Adrian de Groot, charting his relationship with his agent, friend, and sometimes lover, an Irishman named Frank Pike. In de Groot's narrative, Pike is a charismatic IRA fighter sprung from prison in Spain to assist with the planned German invasion of Ireland, but who never gets the chance to consummate his deal with the devil.
Meanwhile, the other manuscript gives a very different account of the Irishman's doings in the Reich. Assuming the alter ego of the Celtic hero Finn McCool, Pike appears here as the ultimate Allied saboteur. His mission: an assassination campaign of high-ranking Nazi doctors, culminating in the killing of Hitler's personal physician.
The two manuscripts spiral around each other, leaving only the reader to know the full truth of Pike and de Groot's relationship, their ultimate loyalties, and their efforts to resist the fascist reality in which they are caught.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published January 11, 2022
190 people are currently reading
9121 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 199 reviews
February 10, 2022
The Torqued Man, Peter Mann's debut novel, is—how can I say it?—a marvelous sort of chimera, dark, comic, full of historical detail (some real, some invented), with a strong thread of gay sensibility running through it. The story is told from the perspectives of the novel's two central characters, neither of whom sees the other with full clarity.
Adrian is a member of German military intelligence, not comfortable with much that's happening in his country (he's a closeted gay man), but accepting that his work will benefit the Nazi government and attempting to keep his hands cleaner-than-others' while getting them dirty. Pike is an Irishman who fought in the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War and is now in one of Franco's prisons.
As part of a pre-invasion-of-England move, Adrian removes Pike from that prison, with the goal of training him in preparation for sending him to Ireland, where he will be responsible for trying to reduce English morale and foment anti-English sentiment among the Irish. Pike has also been approached by the English, who want to use him as a source inside Germany. Adrian finds himself fixated on (in love with?) Pike. Meanwhile Pike is bored, being offered no work of any real significance by the Germans and English, and sets out to develop his own crusade.
The novel is told through two parallel narratives: Adrian's journal and Pike's "novelization" of his exploits. The contrast between these narratives makes for interesting reading and creates moments of humor within the personal struggles each man is waging.
The Torqued Man is a smart book: one that will have you thinking about both the history of WWII and about the ways people choose to live their personal ethics. The Torqued Man can provide a very satisfying start to 2022 for readers who like complex tales with humor and ambiguity.
I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via Edelweiss; the opinions are my own.
Adrian is a member of German military intelligence, not comfortable with much that's happening in his country (he's a closeted gay man), but accepting that his work will benefit the Nazi government and attempting to keep his hands cleaner-than-others' while getting them dirty. Pike is an Irishman who fought in the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War and is now in one of Franco's prisons.
As part of a pre-invasion-of-England move, Adrian removes Pike from that prison, with the goal of training him in preparation for sending him to Ireland, where he will be responsible for trying to reduce English morale and foment anti-English sentiment among the Irish. Pike has also been approached by the English, who want to use him as a source inside Germany. Adrian finds himself fixated on (in love with?) Pike. Meanwhile Pike is bored, being offered no work of any real significance by the Germans and English, and sets out to develop his own crusade.
The novel is told through two parallel narratives: Adrian's journal and Pike's "novelization" of his exploits. The contrast between these narratives makes for interesting reading and creates moments of humor within the personal struggles each man is waging.
The Torqued Man is a smart book: one that will have you thinking about both the history of WWII and about the ways people choose to live their personal ethics. The Torqued Man can provide a very satisfying start to 2022 for readers who like complex tales with humor and ambiguity.
I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via Edelweiss; the opinions are my own.
January 23, 2022
The Torqued Man is a very difficult novel to pull off. It has to accurately replicate the atmosphere of Nazi Germany in World War II, introduce two queer heroes enmeshed with each other without the Tragic Homosexual trope, present a novel-within-the-novel that tweaks the story without it losing momentum. become a high wire spy tale in the tradition of Furst and LeCarré, and do all of this in a way that entertains while seamlessly blending multiple genres.
And man oh man does Peter Mann do it. The wild son-of-a-gun, he did it.
This book was so much fun to read. It’ll make you laugh. It’ll make you cry. It’ll make you (or maybe just me) want to finally read Norman Ohler’s Blitzed (apparently, the Nazi High Command did in fact use a lot of drugs). It’s so good.
Ostensibly, it’s a spy novel, but like a lot of contemporary spy novels, it uses the genre to examine identity. What is our identity? Our nationality? Our race? Our religion? Our sexuality? Both characters feel so real and lived in, thus giving the story depth and allowing it to carry the huge amount of weight it does.
One small thing in the grand scheme that I really appreciated: Mann allows Adrian to really examine what it means to live in Nazi Germany. Is he a perpetrator? Certainly not as much as party members and SS officers but he does find methods of survival knowing full well the evils of their government. And even if it’s the smallest role possible, he is technically part of the war effort. He’s not guiltless. So many books want to talk about Nazi resisters but that representation is in abundance relative to their numbers and impact. He paints Adrian as fatally doomed but also doesn’t let him off the hook.
An excellent work of fiction, my favorite of the new year by far.
And man oh man does Peter Mann do it. The wild son-of-a-gun, he did it.
This book was so much fun to read. It’ll make you laugh. It’ll make you cry. It’ll make you (or maybe just me) want to finally read Norman Ohler’s Blitzed (apparently, the Nazi High Command did in fact use a lot of drugs). It’s so good.
Ostensibly, it’s a spy novel, but like a lot of contemporary spy novels, it uses the genre to examine identity. What is our identity? Our nationality? Our race? Our religion? Our sexuality? Both characters feel so real and lived in, thus giving the story depth and allowing it to carry the huge amount of weight it does.
One small thing in the grand scheme that I really appreciated: Mann allows Adrian to really examine what it means to live in Nazi Germany. Is he a perpetrator? Certainly not as much as party members and SS officers but he does find methods of survival knowing full well the evils of their government. And even if it’s the smallest role possible, he is technically part of the war effort. He’s not guiltless. So many books want to talk about Nazi resisters but that representation is in abundance relative to their numbers and impact. He paints Adrian as fatally doomed but also doesn’t let him off the hook.
An excellent work of fiction, my favorite of the new year by far.
Read
August 18, 2022At 60% and I decided to add it to my dnf shelf.
This is not my kind of book.
I was very pleased with the beginning and I even added the audiobook to play along (I really enjoyed the narrator).
The writing is very good and there is lots of humour, but I was too disconnected. I could not care for anything.
Perhaps I picked the wrong time to read it, but I really don’t see myself going back to this one.
This is not my kind of book.
I was very pleased with the beginning and I even added the audiobook to play along (I really enjoyed the narrator).
The writing is very good and there is lots of humour, but I was too disconnected. I could not care for anything.
Perhaps I picked the wrong time to read it, but I really don’t see myself going back to this one.
May 30, 2023
A WWII spy novel with brains, humor, and heart. Two unreliable narrators take turns rolling out the story - one via their personal journal and the other with their own self-serving novel within a novel. The narratives swirl around each other and fill in the blanks as the reader gets closer to the truth. Loads of fun with lots of key historical details that add to the effect. Loved it!
June 8, 2022
A weird historical (spy?) novel set mostly in Germany during WWII. The main characters are a bisexual Irish man plucked from a Spanish prison for use in a German plot to invade England, and his handler, a gay translator in the German intelligence service who'd rather be reading. This is one of those stories where a German in WWII who internally opposes the Nazi ideology, but generally not enough to do anything about it. There is some internal conflict over his own complicity, and a bit of rebellion, but it's little and late. There's also no real attempt at explanation as to why he didn't extricate himself earlier if he objected as he would seem to have had the opportunity having spent a lot of time in Spain before and after being recruited to the intelligence service.
I won't try to elaborate their histories or politics in more detail as I'd just get it wrong and I don't care.
I don't recall how I came across this, as none of my GR friends seem to have read it. Personally I have never shared, nor particularly understood the obsession so many people seem to have with WWII. I picked this up mostly for the relationship implied in the sales copy for the book. Sadly, I did not get what I hoped for there. It's not romantic, the feelings of the two men were imbalanced, and there's definitely nothing resembling an HEA or HFN.
The book alternates between very pulpy chapters from the Irish character's POV, (he takes on the persona of an Irish folk hero), and more normal journal entries from the German's POV. Time in the novel is very unclear and confusing at times, not least because the journal entries are dated, but are written in retrospect, so the events recounted do not match the dates of the entries.
This is one of those weird novels where I found it enjoyable enough while actually reading to not want to dnf, but quite reluctant to pick up again once I set it down. I think in this case this is at least in part due to the author not really setting up anything to look forward to, nor anything to really fear, so suspense and anticipation were both low and it was pretty clear after a while I would not be getting the sort of relationship I'd hoped.
I won't try to elaborate their histories or politics in more detail as I'd just get it wrong and I don't care.
I don't recall how I came across this, as none of my GR friends seem to have read it. Personally I have never shared, nor particularly understood the obsession so many people seem to have with WWII. I picked this up mostly for the relationship implied in the sales copy for the book. Sadly, I did not get what I hoped for there. It's not romantic, the feelings of the two men were imbalanced, and there's definitely nothing resembling an HEA or HFN.
The book alternates between very pulpy chapters from the Irish character's POV, (he takes on the persona of an Irish folk hero), and more normal journal entries from the German's POV. Time in the novel is very unclear and confusing at times, not least because the journal entries are dated, but are written in retrospect, so the events recounted do not match the dates of the entries.
This is one of those weird novels where I found it enjoyable enough while actually reading to not want to dnf, but quite reluctant to pick up again once I set it down. I think in this case this is at least in part due to the author not really setting up anything to look forward to, nor anything to really fear, so suspense and anticipation were both low and it was pretty clear after a while I would not be getting the sort of relationship I'd hoped.
January 22, 2022
The Torqued Man, by Peter Mann, demonstrates how self-aggrandizement, and even outright delusion, twists our experiences of shared events. Perspective is the catalyst to change, even to change who we are, and that changes everything.
December 7, 2022
Spies, double-agents, and triple-agents. Espionage and counter-espionage. War, when losing it and when winning it. No one in this story is who they seem to be. I haven't read a spy novel in decades, and this was clearly the one I have been waiting for. This story is also historical fiction, set in Europe during the WWII years of 1940 to 1944. Normally, nothing makes me want to avoid a book more than the thought of reading more WWII historical fiction. But this one. is. different. And to top it all off, this is a debut novel with characters of more depth and a more twisty-turn intriguing plot and amazing prose than I expect from authors of far greater experience.
The story opens & closes in September 1945, when two seemingly related manuscripts have been found by the American army in the rubble of a bombed house in Schoeneberg, Germany. Someone has gone to the effort of attempting to collate them. The big middle of this page-turning thriller is told in alternating chapters from two perspectives. The chapters entitled "Journal" are written by Johann Grotius (also known by many other names), who is ostensibly a cultural attache to the German embassy in Spain, specializing in translation, but is in fact a spy-runner for the German spy-agency. The chapters beginning with the title of "Finn McCool" are written by the Irishman Proinnsias "Frank" Pike, who has been released from a Spanish prison on condition that he will work on behalf of Germany against England and in theory enhance Ireland's chances for freedom. The Finn McCool chapters each begin with an almost Robin Hood mythic quality, before describing Pike's exploits. Grotius and Pike are spy-runner and spy for Germany over three to four years, but each of them only know the facts from their own point of view.
This is a gritty, dirty, war novel, in which people are tortured, children are murdered, and exploitative explicit pornography is traded among the wealthy & powerful. Don't read this if you're squeamish. But if you're able to face the full human "damnedness of choice" -- "there are a lot of ways to be damned, and that's what makes up the burden of having to choose. Choosing precisely in which manner you wish to be damned" -- every person and moment and page in this novel will force you / allow you / to think about the choices any of us might make when all the choices are damned.
The story opens & closes in September 1945, when two seemingly related manuscripts have been found by the American army in the rubble of a bombed house in Schoeneberg, Germany. Someone has gone to the effort of attempting to collate them. The big middle of this page-turning thriller is told in alternating chapters from two perspectives. The chapters entitled "Journal" are written by Johann Grotius (also known by many other names), who is ostensibly a cultural attache to the German embassy in Spain, specializing in translation, but is in fact a spy-runner for the German spy-agency. The chapters beginning with the title of "Finn McCool" are written by the Irishman Proinnsias "Frank" Pike, who has been released from a Spanish prison on condition that he will work on behalf of Germany against England and in theory enhance Ireland's chances for freedom. The Finn McCool chapters each begin with an almost Robin Hood mythic quality, before describing Pike's exploits. Grotius and Pike are spy-runner and spy for Germany over three to four years, but each of them only know the facts from their own point of view.
This is a gritty, dirty, war novel, in which people are tortured, children are murdered, and exploitative explicit pornography is traded among the wealthy & powerful. Don't read this if you're squeamish. But if you're able to face the full human "damnedness of choice" -- "there are a lot of ways to be damned, and that's what makes up the burden of having to choose. Choosing precisely in which manner you wish to be damned" -- every person and moment and page in this novel will force you / allow you / to think about the choices any of us might make when all the choices are damned.
January 2, 2022
The Torqued Man is a historical fiction novel with brilliant and well-crafted characters, intriguing and bold plot points, and a certain charm only a story like itself could have. I'm amazed at how attached I became to this story, but how could I not with characters like the protagonists, Adrian and Pike? They were incredible and I feel as though I've never followed characters quite like them.
It had brilliant twists and was well-paced. There is way more to the story than its description lets on, but that's probably best considering the element of surprise is always effective (and occasionally, pleasant).
Long story short, Peter Mann is definitely one to watch. Also, this book comes out the day before my birthday so its my birthday wish that everyone goes out and get a copy of it (jk, jk... unless.)
It had brilliant twists and was well-paced. There is way more to the story than its description lets on, but that's probably best considering the element of surprise is always effective (and occasionally, pleasant).
Long story short, Peter Mann is definitely one to watch. Also, this book comes out the day before my birthday so its my birthday wish that everyone goes out and get a copy of it (jk, jk... unless.)
August 17, 2024
Zwei Seiten
Kurz nach dem zweiten Weltkrieg werden zwei Manuskripte gefunden, die vom US-Militär ausgewertet werden sollen. Zunächst ist nicht klar, dass es sich um unterschiedliche Schriftstücke handelt. Das stellt sich jedoch schnell heraus. Zum einen berichtet der deutsche Adrian de Groot, der in verschiedene Geheimoperationen involviert war. Bei dem anderen handelt es sich um den Iren Frank Pike, der sich nach einem Gefängnisaufenthalt in Spanien den Deutschen angeschlossen hat, um die Invasion Groß Britannien zu unterstützen. Die Berichte unterscheiden sich doch erheblich, obwohl es um die selben Ereignisse geht.
Zwei ausgesprochen unterschiedliche Typen, ein Deutscher, der sich natürlich nicht als Nazi versteht und dennoch für diesen Staat arbeitet. Ein Ire, der während des Bürgerkrieges in Spanien verhaftet wurde und der quasi in letzter Sekunde von dem Deutschen aus dem Gefängnis befreit wird. Bedingung ist, dass er sich einer deutschen Geheimoperation anschließt, um die Briten zu besiegen. Natürlich ergreift Pike die Chance rauszukommen, auch wenn er möglicherweise noch eigene Ziele verfolgt. Nur knapp ist er dem Tod entronnen, da ist so ein Angebot schon überzeugend. Zwar schlägt der erste Versuch, über den Kanal zu kommen, fehl, aber man kann es sicher nochmal versuchen.
Das ist mal eine ungewöhnliche Geschichte. Natürlich, fragt man zwei Personen, wie sie Ereignisse erleben, wird man bestimmt sehr unterschiedliche Darstellungen bekommen. Diesem Roman gibt es einen besonderen Kniff. Da gibt es auch noch weitere Kleinigkeiten zu entdecken, die die Lektüre sehr interessant machen. Nur die mitunter etwas rüde Sprache, hätte vielleicht nicht unbedingt sein müssen. Die Handlung ist spannend, besonders wenn es darum geht, die geheimen Pläne zu verfolgen und zu erfahren, ob sie von Erfolg gekrönt sind. Immer wieder gibt es neue Versuche, etwas zu erreichen. Dabei wird auch deutlich angesprochen, dass es mit dem sogenannten Reich merklich bergab geht. In Teilen wirkt der Roman wie ein Schelmenstück, dass vor einem bitterernsten Hintergrund einzuordnen ist.
Wie möglicherweise mit dem Titelbild dargestellt, bleibt der Ire eine Gestalt im Schatten wie es sich für einen Spion gehört.
Kurz nach dem zweiten Weltkrieg werden zwei Manuskripte gefunden, die vom US-Militär ausgewertet werden sollen. Zunächst ist nicht klar, dass es sich um unterschiedliche Schriftstücke handelt. Das stellt sich jedoch schnell heraus. Zum einen berichtet der deutsche Adrian de Groot, der in verschiedene Geheimoperationen involviert war. Bei dem anderen handelt es sich um den Iren Frank Pike, der sich nach einem Gefängnisaufenthalt in Spanien den Deutschen angeschlossen hat, um die Invasion Groß Britannien zu unterstützen. Die Berichte unterscheiden sich doch erheblich, obwohl es um die selben Ereignisse geht.
Zwei ausgesprochen unterschiedliche Typen, ein Deutscher, der sich natürlich nicht als Nazi versteht und dennoch für diesen Staat arbeitet. Ein Ire, der während des Bürgerkrieges in Spanien verhaftet wurde und der quasi in letzter Sekunde von dem Deutschen aus dem Gefängnis befreit wird. Bedingung ist, dass er sich einer deutschen Geheimoperation anschließt, um die Briten zu besiegen. Natürlich ergreift Pike die Chance rauszukommen, auch wenn er möglicherweise noch eigene Ziele verfolgt. Nur knapp ist er dem Tod entronnen, da ist so ein Angebot schon überzeugend. Zwar schlägt der erste Versuch, über den Kanal zu kommen, fehl, aber man kann es sicher nochmal versuchen.
Das ist mal eine ungewöhnliche Geschichte. Natürlich, fragt man zwei Personen, wie sie Ereignisse erleben, wird man bestimmt sehr unterschiedliche Darstellungen bekommen. Diesem Roman gibt es einen besonderen Kniff. Da gibt es auch noch weitere Kleinigkeiten zu entdecken, die die Lektüre sehr interessant machen. Nur die mitunter etwas rüde Sprache, hätte vielleicht nicht unbedingt sein müssen. Die Handlung ist spannend, besonders wenn es darum geht, die geheimen Pläne zu verfolgen und zu erfahren, ob sie von Erfolg gekrönt sind. Immer wieder gibt es neue Versuche, etwas zu erreichen. Dabei wird auch deutlich angesprochen, dass es mit dem sogenannten Reich merklich bergab geht. In Teilen wirkt der Roman wie ein Schelmenstück, dass vor einem bitterernsten Hintergrund einzuordnen ist.
Wie möglicherweise mit dem Titelbild dargestellt, bleibt der Ire eine Gestalt im Schatten wie es sich für einen Spion gehört.
March 2, 2022
3.5 stars
I'm not sure what I expected from this book, and so am left feeling a little bereft of any particular emotion after finishing. This was a mix between historical fiction and [political] thriller for me; it had elements of both without necessarily being strictly either. It was well-written and interesting, even if I'm not quite sure how to pin it down.
I never felt particularly invested in either of the main characters, but at the same time wasn't moved by the storyline. We have a dual POV between Frank Pike and Adrian de Groot, but they aren't aligned in time or content, which I found a unique and compelling approach.
I enjoyed the dark humour of Pike, but found de Groot a generally irritating figure - as Pike calls him, a "well-intentioned coward". What I DID like is this glimpse into this person who works for the German government but is not a Nazi and does not consider himself to be working for Hitler at all (and is in fact disdainful of national socialism and all the figures involved). It makes de Groot a slippery character who is really just trying to save his own neck.
A fine read, but a little boring.
I'm not sure what I expected from this book, and so am left feeling a little bereft of any particular emotion after finishing. This was a mix between historical fiction and [political] thriller for me; it had elements of both without necessarily being strictly either. It was well-written and interesting, even if I'm not quite sure how to pin it down.
I never felt particularly invested in either of the main characters, but at the same time wasn't moved by the storyline. We have a dual POV between Frank Pike and Adrian de Groot, but they aren't aligned in time or content, which I found a unique and compelling approach.
I enjoyed the dark humour of Pike, but found de Groot a generally irritating figure - as Pike calls him, a "well-intentioned coward". What I DID like is this glimpse into this person who works for the German government but is not a Nazi and does not consider himself to be working for Hitler at all (and is in fact disdainful of national socialism and all the figures involved). It makes de Groot a slippery character who is really just trying to save his own neck.
A fine read, but a little boring.
December 6, 2022
An astonishing book. Mann takes two narrative threads and weaves them into a darkly comic tapestry where fact and fiction blur set during precipitous fall of the Third Reich.
Our first narrator, Frank Pike, formerly of the IRA is living in a slightly outrageous pulp espionage novel. While our other narrative is through the much more heady journal entries of Adrian de Groot, his German handler.
Both men explore morality and what it means to resist and submit in equal order. As the action picks up, the narratives split and fracture in gratifying and salacious ways leading one to make their own interpretation of where reality stands.
Our first narrator, Frank Pike, formerly of the IRA is living in a slightly outrageous pulp espionage novel. While our other narrative is through the much more heady journal entries of Adrian de Groot, his German handler.
Both men explore morality and what it means to resist and submit in equal order. As the action picks up, the narratives split and fracture in gratifying and salacious ways leading one to make their own interpretation of where reality stands.
December 18, 2021
Very heavy and dark, but most WWII based books are.
I wanted to like this more since it is written primarily in a journal style. There was just so much going on that I didn't feel as connected to the characters as I had hoped for. I had a hard time getting into the story until somewhere around halfway. Yes it fits into the Historical Fiction and Thriller categories, but I think those that enjoy Non-fiction may actually like it the most due to the amount of detail on the events/place. Overall I did enjoy it, but felt a bit lost here and there.
I wanted to like this more since it is written primarily in a journal style. There was just so much going on that I didn't feel as connected to the characters as I had hoped for. I had a hard time getting into the story until somewhere around halfway. Yes it fits into the Historical Fiction and Thriller categories, but I think those that enjoy Non-fiction may actually like it the most due to the amount of detail on the events/place. Overall I did enjoy it, but felt a bit lost here and there.
April 27, 2022
I really really enjoyed this book. The story follow Frank Pike, a socialist IRA fighter who is imprisoned in a Spanish jail following the Spanish Civil War. He is saved from prison by Adrian de Groot, a German intelligence officer, hoping that Pike will be an asset for an impending Nazi invasion of England.
The novel fluctuates between two manuscripts, overlapping and depicting the same time period. One is de Groot's personal journal, where he attempts to find an actual use for Pike as his handler. Hopelessly in love and infatuated with Pike, and passionate about literature and film, de Groot struggles to reconcile his personal distaste for Nazism and his work for the state ("pulled one way by inclination, and another by propriety", as Pike observes). The second manuscript is a pulpy novel written by Pike, featuring himself as the main character as he makes attempts to cripple the Nazi medical and eugenics establishment. Embellished and self-aggrandizing, this fictional novel gives us as much insight into Pike as a character as de Groot's own first-person journal.
While this all may seem like a lot thrown at the wall, The Torqued Man is an engaging and exciting historical fiction noir. Peter Mann is a brilliant writer, both witty and intensely personal. The relationship between Pike and de Groot is complicated and relatable; though they both find themselves serving masters they despise, the novel really highlights just how different they are, as they are both swept up in historical events. While the plot loses itself a bit at the end, The Torqued Man is definitely a stand out in the genre of World War II novels.
The novel fluctuates between two manuscripts, overlapping and depicting the same time period. One is de Groot's personal journal, where he attempts to find an actual use for Pike as his handler. Hopelessly in love and infatuated with Pike, and passionate about literature and film, de Groot struggles to reconcile his personal distaste for Nazism and his work for the state ("pulled one way by inclination, and another by propriety", as Pike observes). The second manuscript is a pulpy novel written by Pike, featuring himself as the main character as he makes attempts to cripple the Nazi medical and eugenics establishment. Embellished and self-aggrandizing, this fictional novel gives us as much insight into Pike as a character as de Groot's own first-person journal.
While this all may seem like a lot thrown at the wall, The Torqued Man is an engaging and exciting historical fiction noir. Peter Mann is a brilliant writer, both witty and intensely personal. The relationship between Pike and de Groot is complicated and relatable; though they both find themselves serving masters they despise, the novel really highlights just how different they are, as they are both swept up in historical events. While the plot loses itself a bit at the end, The Torqued Man is definitely a stand out in the genre of World War II novels.
February 11, 2022
What an awful, gross, weird book that I could not put down for three days, dragging me kicking and screaming out of a reading slump.
November 3, 2025
Loved this book. A super smart, funny, suspenseful and totally unique literary thriller set in Berlin in 1944, in which US soldiers sent in to mop up the city discover two manuscripts that tell the same tale from two wildly different, and completely unreliable perspectives.
One is the journal of a minor officer in German intelligence (secretly gay, secretly anti-Nazi) who is tasked with recruiting an Irish national, currently rotting in a Spanish prison, into helping the Nazis foment anti-British sentiment in Ireland ahead of a planned attack on England. The other manuscript is a tale told by that Irish national himself, in which he envisions himself as Irish folk hero Finn McCool, on a mission to single-handedly take out Hitler and end WW2. The book alternates between the two manuscripts, which twist and turn around each other, challenging the reader to discern the “truth” between these two men who are both leading lives of subterfuge and deception, both with their own agendas of what they think is right.
“ Finn McCool” will be recognizable to any fans of Flann O Brien’s classic At Swim-Two-Birds, one of my all time favorite novels, which the author also clearly loves, and the way that he somehow manages to splice together comic Irish folklore with WW2 espionage—as well as something of a love story, and a meditation on sacrifice, friendship, and standing up for one’s ideals—is a marvel to behold.
This might not be for everyone, but for me it was a near perfect melange of stuff that I love, so it’s an easy 5 stars from me. This is the first novel by a Stanford history professor, and I hope he has more than one in him because I’d read another without hesitation.
One is the journal of a minor officer in German intelligence (secretly gay, secretly anti-Nazi) who is tasked with recruiting an Irish national, currently rotting in a Spanish prison, into helping the Nazis foment anti-British sentiment in Ireland ahead of a planned attack on England. The other manuscript is a tale told by that Irish national himself, in which he envisions himself as Irish folk hero Finn McCool, on a mission to single-handedly take out Hitler and end WW2. The book alternates between the two manuscripts, which twist and turn around each other, challenging the reader to discern the “truth” between these two men who are both leading lives of subterfuge and deception, both with their own agendas of what they think is right.
“ Finn McCool” will be recognizable to any fans of Flann O Brien’s classic At Swim-Two-Birds, one of my all time favorite novels, which the author also clearly loves, and the way that he somehow manages to splice together comic Irish folklore with WW2 espionage—as well as something of a love story, and a meditation on sacrifice, friendship, and standing up for one’s ideals—is a marvel to behold.
This might not be for everyone, but for me it was a near perfect melange of stuff that I love, so it’s an easy 5 stars from me. This is the first novel by a Stanford history professor, and I hope he has more than one in him because I’d read another without hesitation.
February 6, 2023
a WWII gay spy novel with a main character who is an IRA fighter, this book was literally written for me
January 8, 2025
a lotta content that wasn’t my cup of tea but a really entertaining story
March 30, 2024
I don't quite know what to make of "The Torqued Man" (TTM). Peter Mann certainly has looked at or read a lot of books. I mean, few would ever mention the jurisprudent Grotius as when Pike/Finn, the IRA/Marxist prisoner of the Falange, meets his Nazi handler de Groot/Fluss. And Mr. Mann certainly has a way with words: many of his expressions are quite elegant, and many are scatological in a way that takes elegant or clever expression and bends it to humor.
There seems to me to be a lot of surface glitter and fast action -- hidden identities, wild boys, farce, even nuns! and so on -- but there is, I think, no profundity or, better, no real depth. For example, Adrian de Groot is potentially the most interesting character of the book. He has a moral flaw: he cooperates with the Nazi regime (is, in fact, employed by it in one of its multiple intelligence services) while opposing its principles and methods but only in the confines of his own mind. And he does some bad and/or dubious “Nazi-style” things in the service of his own peace of mind. This could be a really interesting guy. And, towards the end, Mr. Mann does pretty well with this aspect of de Groot, especially in the lead up to the scene where de Groot gives his false confession. But, in the main, de Groot has no spark. He remains a milquetoast. De Groot's motivator in the book is his attraction to Pike/Finn, but it is portrayed colorlessly. It seems to come down to "I want him to spend more time with me." Where's the heat, the eroticism, the need of de Groot for Pike? Without it, de Groot's gothic, kind of funny, switch of Crean for Pike has no basis in de Groot's character. In fact, there are a few pallid, well, blow jobs, between the two, but no great zest.
Although Pike usually calls de Groot the torqued man, he is also so "torqued" that his character seems to have shattered. There is no center to him. This may be the result of his long and awful confinement in a Spanish prison, but I suspect that it his nature. Voluble and violent, he devises schemes and plans (doctor killings, factory demolition) that seem to me to arise from inchoate impulses and without reference to rational planning or research or cooperation. He seems a little delirious in everything he does, at least according to how he writes himself up in his narration "Finn McCool in the Bowels of Teutonia" which, along with de Groot’s diary, forms the book’s fabric.
I mentioned the lack of eroticism. In this book, sex is abstract and emotionless. Smut plays a role in the plot, but, well, smut is smut. How it highlights the foibles of Nazi doctors is not so interesting because people other than Nazis like smut too. So, big deal. At one point, de Groot finds himself inadvertently in a secret homosexual dungeon. But his reactions are timid and frightened. The wild boys have what Mr. Mann calls "homoerotic" initiations. but I don't see the homoerotic in the beating and submission. (Well, maybe a little.) In sum there is plenty of dungeon sexuality, but the deep eroticism of attraction and love is missing.
I think that Mr. Mann does portray the Nazi characters quite well. Nazis can be the stock characters of paranoia, unspeakable behavior, and grotesque expression. But Mr. Mann's characters are confident and self-assured in their principles though they may be personally obnoxious and flawed, just like any deep believers in ideologies and their systems. The point that Mr. Mann makes well is that they believe they are right and all else must be bent or torqued to their kind of racial humanism. It is the source of their smugness. This nicely appears in just a couple of brief paragraphs on Dr. Heinz's ideas on euthanasia and how to implement it for the good of his own "race".
It is against the above that, for me, the action races and moves back and forth in ways that seem baroque and odd.
Lawrence says: You can read this book to see what you think! Or you can skip it.
There seems to me to be a lot of surface glitter and fast action -- hidden identities, wild boys, farce, even nuns! and so on -- but there is, I think, no profundity or, better, no real depth. For example, Adrian de Groot is potentially the most interesting character of the book. He has a moral flaw: he cooperates with the Nazi regime (is, in fact, employed by it in one of its multiple intelligence services) while opposing its principles and methods but only in the confines of his own mind. And he does some bad and/or dubious “Nazi-style” things in the service of his own peace of mind. This could be a really interesting guy. And, towards the end, Mr. Mann does pretty well with this aspect of de Groot, especially in the lead up to the scene where de Groot gives his false confession. But, in the main, de Groot has no spark. He remains a milquetoast. De Groot's motivator in the book is his attraction to Pike/Finn, but it is portrayed colorlessly. It seems to come down to "I want him to spend more time with me." Where's the heat, the eroticism, the need of de Groot for Pike? Without it, de Groot's gothic, kind of funny, switch of Crean for Pike has no basis in de Groot's character. In fact, there are a few pallid, well, blow jobs, between the two, but no great zest.
Although Pike usually calls de Groot the torqued man, he is also so "torqued" that his character seems to have shattered. There is no center to him. This may be the result of his long and awful confinement in a Spanish prison, but I suspect that it his nature. Voluble and violent, he devises schemes and plans (doctor killings, factory demolition) that seem to me to arise from inchoate impulses and without reference to rational planning or research or cooperation. He seems a little delirious in everything he does, at least according to how he writes himself up in his narration "Finn McCool in the Bowels of Teutonia" which, along with de Groot’s diary, forms the book’s fabric.
I mentioned the lack of eroticism. In this book, sex is abstract and emotionless. Smut plays a role in the plot, but, well, smut is smut. How it highlights the foibles of Nazi doctors is not so interesting because people other than Nazis like smut too. So, big deal. At one point, de Groot finds himself inadvertently in a secret homosexual dungeon. But his reactions are timid and frightened. The wild boys have what Mr. Mann calls "homoerotic" initiations. but I don't see the homoerotic in the beating and submission. (Well, maybe a little.) In sum there is plenty of dungeon sexuality, but the deep eroticism of attraction and love is missing.
I think that Mr. Mann does portray the Nazi characters quite well. Nazis can be the stock characters of paranoia, unspeakable behavior, and grotesque expression. But Mr. Mann's characters are confident and self-assured in their principles though they may be personally obnoxious and flawed, just like any deep believers in ideologies and their systems. The point that Mr. Mann makes well is that they believe they are right and all else must be bent or torqued to their kind of racial humanism. It is the source of their smugness. This nicely appears in just a couple of brief paragraphs on Dr. Heinz's ideas on euthanasia and how to implement it for the good of his own "race".
It is against the above that, for me, the action races and moves back and forth in ways that seem baroque and odd.
Lawrence says: You can read this book to see what you think! Or you can skip it.
May 10, 2025
Grinning and tripping through this narrative, you find yourself stopping to catch your breath every now and again when you realize you're sick to your stomach. Amazing. The awfulness and wonder of being ruled by story, and what two people in love with story can do with it.
January 25, 2022
oh this book is SO simply phenomenal. I am certain I will NEVER forget this book, even details within, and it will remain one of my all time favorite books.
It will be a book people will either love or hate. It is VERY weird and VERY unusual and doesn't follow a formula for typical stories of this type--it's not at all historical fiction though it is set in WWII and there is history in it and it is most certainly fiction--it's not a thriller and it is not really a mystery but something like that. It is just a weird, hot mess of a genre blend that makes you think, laugh until you cry, and also upsets you quite a bit. You will experience ALL the emotions from your range of emotions reading this.
If you like movies such as Pulp Fiction, Fargo, The Big Lebowski and similar movies, you will probably really, really like The Torqued Man. It is kind of like this: if you crossed the minds of the Cohen brothers plus Quentin Tarantino plus George RR Martin and have them set their plot during WWII....you get The Torqued Man.
Trigger warning: if you are conservative or sensitive, you most likely won't enjoy this book at all. The book employs a mixture of unusual plot devices that are used very creatively and Peter Mann pulls off a very ambitious project.
So as to the plot, not to give away too much: The plot is complex and I highly recommend you take your time with this book: two men, a German and an Irishman, are working together (or are they?) in righting some wrongs and surviving the nightmare that is Germany (Berlin) in 1944 while keeping their humanity as intact as possible.
The main story warps itself around one of characters plotting revenge on all those in the system who have wronged him (Nazi Doctors, for example). Additionally, he plans to assassinate Hitler and cannot do so without assistance. One of the main characters is gay and the other is pansexual, which complicates things quite a bit especially their relationship and cooperation in their mutual goals.
There are subplots on spy culture, Irish Independence, IRA, underground gay culture in a society where being gay was very dangerous and vigilante justice (very justifiable in this case). What it means to be a family, how the outcast are treated by the dominant culture and more.
It really sounds like a hot mess, right? It is but the plot comes together very nicely. If you do not have a very sick sense of humor and like very weird things, I really doubt you will enjoy this. But well, the spies make a lot of mistakes and blunders and some of them are extremely funny. Others are very serious. Like I said, you will experience a full range of emotions with this brilliant, fabulous, fantastic, smart, well researched book. I am completely in awe of the author who pulled this story off so seamlessly and made it funny despite the topics.
If you are in the mood for "something completely and utterly different" read this book!
It will be a book people will either love or hate. It is VERY weird and VERY unusual and doesn't follow a formula for typical stories of this type--it's not at all historical fiction though it is set in WWII and there is history in it and it is most certainly fiction--it's not a thriller and it is not really a mystery but something like that. It is just a weird, hot mess of a genre blend that makes you think, laugh until you cry, and also upsets you quite a bit. You will experience ALL the emotions from your range of emotions reading this.
If you like movies such as Pulp Fiction, Fargo, The Big Lebowski and similar movies, you will probably really, really like The Torqued Man. It is kind of like this: if you crossed the minds of the Cohen brothers plus Quentin Tarantino plus George RR Martin and have them set their plot during WWII....you get The Torqued Man.
Trigger warning: if you are conservative or sensitive, you most likely won't enjoy this book at all. The book employs a mixture of unusual plot devices that are used very creatively and Peter Mann pulls off a very ambitious project.
So as to the plot, not to give away too much: The plot is complex and I highly recommend you take your time with this book: two men, a German and an Irishman, are working together (or are they?) in righting some wrongs and surviving the nightmare that is Germany (Berlin) in 1944 while keeping their humanity as intact as possible.
The main story warps itself around one of characters plotting revenge on all those in the system who have wronged him (Nazi Doctors, for example). Additionally, he plans to assassinate Hitler and cannot do so without assistance. One of the main characters is gay and the other is pansexual, which complicates things quite a bit especially their relationship and cooperation in their mutual goals.
There are subplots on spy culture, Irish Independence, IRA, underground gay culture in a society where being gay was very dangerous and vigilante justice (very justifiable in this case). What it means to be a family, how the outcast are treated by the dominant culture and more.
It really sounds like a hot mess, right? It is but the plot comes together very nicely. If you do not have a very sick sense of humor and like very weird things, I really doubt you will enjoy this. But well, the spies make a lot of mistakes and blunders and some of them are extremely funny. Others are very serious. Like I said, you will experience a full range of emotions with this brilliant, fabulous, fantastic, smart, well researched book. I am completely in awe of the author who pulled this story off so seamlessly and made it funny despite the topics.
If you are in the mood for "something completely and utterly different" read this book!
February 12, 2022
When I began reading The Torqued Man, I was unsure whether it would be for me, as espionage is not my usual genre. However, I do have an enduring interest in the WWII era. The Torqued Man is in the form of two journals, one by Adrian De Groot, a minor functionary in the Nazi Party intelligence agency and a translator. Adrian comes from an impoverished family of merchants but has the advantage of a good education. Not aligned with Nazi Party politics or philosophy, De Groot hopes to keep his head down and survive. He is also used to recruit agents to infiltrate Ireland and build sentiment for a German invasion. He recruits Frank Pike (also known as Finn), a rabble-rousing IRA fighter. After becoming disenchanted with current IRA leadership, Pike joins the International Brigades and lands in one of Franco's infamous Spanish prisons. From Pike's viewpoint, Adrian's offer is a life-saver. De Groot and Pike are unreliable narrators on an epic scale and become irretrievably entwined as the Reich falls.
The Torqued Man is a "can't put it down" adventure story of one of the most destructive eras of world history and an exploration of the human heart. It is blackly funny, profane, and entirely unexpected with characters, even minor ones, who jump off the page. It is also replete with literary allusion and, in my opinion, impeccably researched. I have always wondered how Germany went so off the rails. One can't ignore the connections to our era. If you put the worst of society, unscrupulous, immoral, ignorant, and steeped in racial hatred, in charge of the house, don't be surprised when the roof falls in.
I can't imagine that The Torqued Man will not be one of the top books of my reading year.
Thanks to NetGalley for an advance digital copy. The opinions are my own.
The Torqued Man is a "can't put it down" adventure story of one of the most destructive eras of world history and an exploration of the human heart. It is blackly funny, profane, and entirely unexpected with characters, even minor ones, who jump off the page. It is also replete with literary allusion and, in my opinion, impeccably researched. I have always wondered how Germany went so off the rails. One can't ignore the connections to our era. If you put the worst of society, unscrupulous, immoral, ignorant, and steeped in racial hatred, in charge of the house, don't be surprised when the roof falls in.
I can't imagine that The Torqued Man will not be one of the top books of my reading year.
Thanks to NetGalley for an advance digital copy. The opinions are my own.
June 18, 2022
I liked this book but I have to say it is a damned weird read. It’s being marketed as a thriller but I would not describe it that way at all. It’s odd and I sympathize with the publisher’s marketing team because I sure as hell would struggle to come up with a description that wouldn’t put off as many readers as attract them. It’s about two men during WWII in Berlin, one a recruit to spydom who is never actually given any opportunity to spy, the other his recruiter and handler. It’s about two separate and wildly different accounts of the same period, two different sets of reality. It’s about petty bureaucracy in the midst of horrific cruelty. One man is colorless, the other wildly charismatic. One man loves the other man without hope. Both would like to derail the Nazi juggernaut, but neither one has any realistic hope of doing so. But only one understands the futility. One wants to be a hero. The other wants to survive.
Recommended.
Recommended.
March 20, 2022
Listened to this one (@ 1.25 speed). It took me some time to get over the annoying fake German accent of the performer reading the book. But I ended up really enjoying this novel, its infusion of queerness at every turn, and the ways the author portrayed the perversion of Nazis. It was a fun listen.
March 19, 2022
Interesting premise and I was excited to read it. It definitely had its up and down moments ranging from super great read - witty and quick - to not so great, plodding and strange. Overall, execution of the exciting premise ultimately fell through for me. Not bad but just okay I guess. For me.
May 11, 2022
I thoroughly enjoyed The Torqued Man. I feel like if I were to ever write a novel, it would be something like this. An imaginative venture into the past—a way of dwelling with how we transform ourselves in conditions not of our choosing. What’s more is that I have a ready familiarity with the world of the novel: Irish socialists, the Spanish Civil war, the woods of Wansee, turn of the century homosexuals, a spattering of German and Spanish, the U-Bahn… And to think that it has a historical basis! In part because of these choices of setting and theme, it read like Gravity’s Rainbow, but less monstrous, both for better and for worst. It made it a more manageable read, one that I finished in two days while starting another. The structure of the novel, going back and forth between journals, was engaging, often hilarious…
The novel gestures toward absurdity as the natural reaction to lives liked in the wake of the horrors of modernism. The Irish man who came to Spain in dedication to the ideal of international solidarity, ends the novel having set fire to a Natzi factory—for something, for not, with a feral band of outcasts. Mann leaves the reader with strategic ambiguity. The Torqued Man who contorts his conscious is made an impossible hero in the end, a figure of the resistance, but was he really ever? If anything, his impotence kept him from acting, from engaging in more than a fight for survival and comfort. The absurdity of many of the subplots and motifs—sadistic smut, banal desire, the double agents, the Russian maid turn spy’s poor cooking, and more—make The Torqued Man a comedy of very human error. This absurdity is not new though; it’s been overdone. Don’t get me wrong, it was a fun novel. But I’m left wanting more—something of philosophical, ideological import. Nearly a century after the second world war I’m interested in the way societies transformed, mobilizes, and remade themselves. I want to hope in the possibility of living out liberatory ideals; something to save us from the end. Oh well…
If Mann can’t help me change the world, I had a vague hope he would help change my world. Having just read Sputnik Sweetheart and now onto The Unbearable Lightness of Being, I am reminded of how good literary fiction can transfix your subjectivity, leave you will a new sense of possibility and self. The Torqued Man is not that. These are (impossibility) high standards….
Also, there were far too few women!
The novel gestures toward absurdity as the natural reaction to lives liked in the wake of the horrors of modernism. The Irish man who came to Spain in dedication to the ideal of international solidarity, ends the novel having set fire to a Natzi factory—for something, for not, with a feral band of outcasts. Mann leaves the reader with strategic ambiguity. The Torqued Man who contorts his conscious is made an impossible hero in the end, a figure of the resistance, but was he really ever? If anything, his impotence kept him from acting, from engaging in more than a fight for survival and comfort. The absurdity of many of the subplots and motifs—sadistic smut, banal desire, the double agents, the Russian maid turn spy’s poor cooking, and more—make The Torqued Man a comedy of very human error. This absurdity is not new though; it’s been overdone. Don’t get me wrong, it was a fun novel. But I’m left wanting more—something of philosophical, ideological import. Nearly a century after the second world war I’m interested in the way societies transformed, mobilizes, and remade themselves. I want to hope in the possibility of living out liberatory ideals; something to save us from the end. Oh well…
If Mann can’t help me change the world, I had a vague hope he would help change my world. Having just read Sputnik Sweetheart and now onto The Unbearable Lightness of Being, I am reminded of how good literary fiction can transfix your subjectivity, leave you will a new sense of possibility and self. The Torqued Man is not that. These are (impossibility) high standards….
Also, there were far too few women!
March 1, 2023
Can’t deny that I enjoy anything that involves the Inglorious Basterds-esque narrative of killing Nazis during WWII. This book provides a fantastical, yet humorous, depiction of such noble work. The characters were brilliantly written and perfectly fit the story. It took me a little to become engaged with the actual plot, but it picked up toward the end. It should also be noted that parts of the book are pretty graphic, which I think adds to the dark humor most of the time, but can definitely be described as superfluous at other points of the story.
February 23, 2022
This is a tentative 5 star in that u can’t do half ratings so it’s maybe 4.5 but I’m a stickler… this book was bombbbb bro, there was a little in the middle I didnt LOVE but the first half especially was so good… one of the best books I’ve read lately . So fun n entertaining the whole way thru yeah dope
March 4, 2022
Loved the story, loved the two main characters and their different views of the same events, the clever dialogue but most of all the reader whose convincing Irish, German, Nazi, and Russian accents were perfect. I have ordered the book to see if reading it is just as delightful..
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January 3, 2025A fun and literate espionage-ish historical romp. Meandered quite a bit in the middle, and some of the content went beyond heightened black humor to sheer ridiculousness, but enjoyable and convincing on the whole.
April 6, 2025
The Torqued Man has a clever premise, and the overall story is interesting, but it drags on and fails to deliver on its promise. The alternating points of view are a nice vehicle, but overall this work just fails to deliver.
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