Online review:
In truth, The Grande Dame and Hitler’s Twin is a hilarity of errors, a madcap romp conducted by countless eccentric and egocentric characters. All the while, they’re capering through a sea of allusions—to music, to the visual arts, and, most of all, to literature. Widely educated readers will be thoroughly amused by Tubach’s concoction, will love to join this bizarre array of men and women and to puzzle through the esoteric hints that appear on nearly every page. –Ann Ronald
https://bookinwithsunny.com/the-grande-dame-and-hitlers-twin/
Sally Patterson Tubach’s second novel, The Grande Dame and Hitler’s Twin: A Comedy of Errors was published by Wipf and Stock in late 2020. This speculative tale asks whether a jet-setting Italian dilettante can develop the maturity and expertise to mentor Hitler’s identical twin in the contemporary San Francisco art world and turn him into a success, thereby keeping him out of politics. Bruno De Carlo is joined by a quirky cast of characters whose humorous misunderstandings move the plot forward in its examination of a nature vs. nurture question: how might the world have been different if the Vienna Academy of Arts had admitted Adolf Hitler to art school and helped him become a famous painter?
Endorsements:
Sally Tubach is a prose magician in this multi-layered book with comic, tragic, ironic turns, one of the most cleverly crafted I have read in a long while. The narrative. . . holds the most dazzlingly thought-provoking surprises. . . and raises provocative questions of historical relevance. . .. —Antoine Faivre, author of Western Esotericism: A Concise History
“A new novel of this calibre is rare indeed. . . . Tubach is an accomplished storyteller. Her elegant prose–enriched by literary and artistic allusions–is a delight. The plot twists and turns with many an amusing mishap. At the request of the US secret services, a respected pillar of the art world employs his considerable marketing skills to establish Hitler’s twin–whose artistic talent is, like Adolf’s, questionable–as a famous painter who has neither time nor inclination to dabble in politics. This novel is compelling reading: spellbinding, entertaining, uplifting, and a welcome escape from worldly woes.” —Philip Ryan, Nerja, Spain
