Most Popular Books by Tom REISS

Part history, part cultural biography, and part literary mystery, The Orientalist traces the life of Lev Nussimbaum, a Jew who transformed himself into a Muslim prince and became a best-selling author in Nazi Germany. Born in 1905 to a wealthy family in the oil-boom city of Baku, at the edge of the czarist empire, Lev escaped the Russian Revolution in a camel caravan. He found refuge in Germany, where, writing under the names Essad Bey and Kurban Said, his remarkable books about Islam, desert adventures, and global revolution, became celebrated across fascist Europe. His enduring masterpiece, Ali and Nino–a story of love across ethnic and religious boundaries, published on the eve of the Holocaust–is still in print today. But Lev’s life grew wilder than his wildest stories. He married an international heiress who had no idea of his true identity–until she divorced him in a tabloid scandal. His closest friend in New York, George Sylvester Viereck–also a friend of both Freud’s and Einstein’s–was arrested as the leading Nazi agent in the United States. Lev was invited to be Mussolini’s official biographer–until the Fascists discovered his “true” identity. Under house arrest in the Amalfi cliff town of Positano, Lev wrote his last book–discovered in a half a dozen notebooks never before read by anyone–helped by a mysterious half-German salon hostess, an Algerian weapons-smuggler, and the poet Ezra Pound. Tom Reiss spent five years tracking down secret police records, love letters, diaries, and the deathbed notebooks. Beginning with a yearlong investigation for The New Yorker, he pursued Lev’s story across ten countries and found himself caught up in encounters as dramatic and surreal, and sometimes as heartbreaking, as his subject’s life. Reiss’s quest for the truth buffets him from one weird character to the next: from the last heir of the Ottoman throne to a rock opera-composing baroness in an Austrian castle, to an aging starlet in a Hollywood bungalow full of cats and turtles. As he tracks down the pieces of Lev Nussimbaum’s deliberately obscured life, Reiss discovers a series of shadowy worlds–of European pan-Islamists, nihilist assassins, anti-Nazi book smugglers, Baku oil barons, Jewish Orientalists–that have also been forgotten. The result is a thoroughly unexpected picture of the twentieth century–of the origins of our ideas about race and religious self-definition, and of the roots of modern fanaticism and terrorism. Written with grace and infused with wonder, The Orientalist is an astonishing book.

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR BIOGRAPHY • ONE OF ESQUIRE’S BEST BIOGRAPHIES OF ALL TIME General Alex Dumas is a man almost unknown today, yet his story is strikingly familiar—because his son, the novelist Alexandre Dumas, used his larger-than-life feats as inspiration for such classics as The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers. But, hidden behind General Dumas''s swashbuckling adventures was an even more incredible secret: he was the son of a black slave—who rose higher in the white world than any man of his race would before our own time. Born in Saint-Domingue (now Haiti), Alex Dumas made his way to Paris, where he rose to command armies at the height of the Revolution—until he met an implacable enemy he could not defeat. The Black Count is simultaneously a riveting adventure story, a lushly textured evocation of 18th-century France, and a window into the modern world’s first multi-racial society. TIME magazine called The Black Count "one of those quintessentially human stories of strength and courage that sheds light on the historical moment that made it possible." But it is also a heartbreaking story of the enduring bonds of love between a father and son.

Ingo Hasselbach was born in East Germany in 1968, the only child of actively Communist parents. He grew up despising the rules they lived by, and hating the state. He fell in with a group of skinheads and became involved in casual violence as an expression of loneliness and contempt. In 1987 he was sent to prison for shouting The wall must fall in a public place. On release, he began working for a secret militant group opposed to the government, and when the government fell he opened up contact with an international network or neo-Nazis and racist movements, and began building up caches of weapons and starting paramilitary camps.

In this lively and witty autobiography, Essad Bey, a.k.a. Lev Nussimbaum, tells the story of his childhood in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, and of his flight from the Russian Revolution in 1917, which brought him first straight through the Caucasus, then to Istanbul and finally to Berlin.

Dette er historien om den franske revolusjonens største og mest populære hærfører, Napoleons rival og den virkelige greven av Monte Cristo: General Alex Dumas. Frem til Tom Reiss’ oppsporing av den gamle helten har Dumas vært en glemt skikkelse i revolusjonshistorien. Men fortellingene om ham klinger liksom merkelig kjente og nærværende, noe som skyldes hans sønn, forfatteren Alexandre Dumas, som brukte farens militære bravader som stoff til sine storslagne historier da han skapte noen av de mest berømte helter litteraturen har sett.

A verdadeira e incrível história do homem que inspirou a obra-prima de Alexandre Dumas. Existe uma história real por trás da obra-prima de Alexandre Dumas. Um homem de carne e osso inspirou o escritor francês a criar o personagem Edmond Dantès, de O conde de Monte Cristo, e também os três mosqueteiros. Seu nome era Alex Dumas, um fascinante e destemido cavaleiro mulato e pai de Alexandre, o romancista. Vencedor do Prêmio Pulitzer de Biografia, Tom Reiss narra de maneira primorosa a vida um dos grandes heróis de todos os tempos, um homem hoje quase desconhecido, mas com uma história pessoal curiosamente familiar. Nascido na colônia francesa de Saint-Domingue, em 1762, filho de um aristocrata sem escrúpulos e uma escrava negra, Alex era apenas um menino quando seu pai o vendeu para poder pagar a viagem de volta à França. Depois de seis meses, o marquês o tirou do cativeiro e o levou para a França, onde ascendeu ao comando de um exército de mais de 50 mil homens no auge da Revolução Francesa - até conhecer um inimigo implacável que não podia derrotar: Napoleão Bonaparte. O Conde Negro é ao mesmo tempo uma história vibrante de aventura, uma jornada que transborda detalhes da história europeia do fim do século XVIII e uma janela para a primeira sociedade multirracial do mundo moderno. É também uma narrativa emocionante sobre os laços inquebrantáveis do amor entre pai e filho. Baseando-se em documentos até então desconhecidos, cartas, relatórios militares e o diário escrito pela mão do próprio Alex Dumas, a biografia é uma obra-prima de não ficção. Pulitzer PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld

Después de El orientalista, un bestseller mundial, Tom Reiss nos brinda El conde negro, la original biografía de uno de los grandes héroes olvidados de la Historia, a pesar de que su vida nos resulte inesperadamente familiar. Sus proezas se narran en Los tres mosqueteros, y sus victorias y padecimientos inspiraron El conde de Montecristo, dos novelas escritas por su hijo, Alexandre Dumas. El general Alex Dumas merece ocupar un lugar entre los grandes por un motivo muy singular: fue el único de su raza que estuvo al frente de poderosos ejércitos durante una intrépida campaña en la que atravesó Europa hasta llegar a Oriente Medio. Hijo de una esclava negra y de un noble francés de raza blanca, Alex Dumas nació en Saint-Domingue (hoy Haití). Vendido como esclavo, consiguió llegar a París, donde estudió esgrima y se codeó con la flor y nata de la aristocracia. Cuando estalló la Revolución Francesa, ingresó en el ejército como soldado raso, pero después de hazañas legendarias fue el general al mando de un ejército de más de cincuenta mil hombres. Aunque llegó muy alto, Dumas siguió viviendo gracias a su audacia y a su dominio de la espada, que le permitieron hacer frente a difíciles situaciones de las que siempre salía airoso. Con todo, sus férreos principios terminaron convirtiéndolo en una amenaza para Napoleón. Cuando regresaba a Francia tras conquistar Egipto, su barco se hundió, y él, capturado por un misterioso enemigo, fue a parar a un calabozo, donde fue víctima de un lento envenenamiento. Y el destino que lo esperaba tras conseguir escapar de la prisión sería aún más «ponzoñoso». El conde negro es, a la vez, una vibrante historia rebosante de aventuras, un viaje desbordante de detalles por la historia europea de finales del siglo XVIII y una ventana a la primera sociedad multirracial del mundo moderno. Asimismo, es una narración entrañable sobre los duraderos vínculos del amor paternofilial. Basado en documentos, cartas, despachos militares y el diario que el general Dumas escribió en su cautiverio –documentos desconocidos hasta la fecha–, este libro es una obra maestra en el ámbito de la no ficción narrativa.

Astonishing. Searingly honest with plenty of drama it is the true story of a young life led that promised much, delivered more that could ever have been envisaged until the bottom fell out of the author''s world. From the realms of high finance and a chance encounter with the President to the comedic pathos of the participation in a football tournament, as an inpatient of a psychiatric facility. After a lengthy period flat out on the canvas of life, our pugilist in all but name, gets back into the ring and makes another attempt, successful again, to prove you can''t keep a good man down. If only that were the end of the story. But there''s a sting in the tail that brings readers up short. The lesson: it really is a good idea to make the most of every day granted to you. Tom Reiss professes to know less and less about life as he poignantly, and with good humour, reflects upon his own. Reiss''s mastery of storytelling through his melodic prose gently guides the reader through the most compelling of lives. Quintessentially, this is a beautiful memoir by a truly remarkable man. Read it. You''ll be surprised by what you may learn.

Once Ingo Hasselbach was a neo-Nazi, preaching racism, anti-Semitism, and anti-government terrorism. Now the 28-year-old founder and leader of the first neo-Nazi party in East Germany takes as his mission the prevention of others following the path of hate. In this eye-opening memoir, Hasselbach vividly exposes the violent movement he helped create--and tells why he left it behind. Photos.

La vie du général Dumas, père d''Alexandre Dumas à qui il inspira de nombreux personnages. Le journaliste retrace la trajectoire mouvementée de ce fils d''un banquier français et d''une esclave de Saint-Domingue qui fut promu général sous la Révolution et dirigea des troupes en Egypte, avant d''être emprisonné sur ordre de Bonaparte pour avoir dénoncé le massacre de Jaffa. Prix Pulitzer 2013.