Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Hitler’s Assassin
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY:
STATE: MA
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Male.
EDUCATION:Dartmouth College, B.A., 1968.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, novelist, journalist, and educator. English composition instructor at universities in New England and Florida. Journalist for the Associated Press and at the Republican (a newspaper in Springfield, Massachusetts). Worked variously as a skiwear merchandiser and a desk clerk.
MIILITARY:Served in the U.S. Navy.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
David Bergengren is a writer, journalist, and educator based in Northampton, Massachusetts. He has been a reporter for the Associated Press and for the Republican, a newspaper in Springfield, Massachusetts. He has also taught English composition at universities in New England and Florida, noted a writer on the Smashwords website. He is a veteran of the U.S. Navy and holds an undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College.
Bergengren’s debut novel is Hitler’s Assassin, a historical story set in 1952 that deals with some of the aftermath of World War II. The main protagonists of the story are Michael Cohen and Johann Richter. Cohen is a magazine journalist sent to cover Richter’s war crimes trial in the fictional Andean city of La Negra. Cohen, a German-American Jew, certainly remembers the war and the actions of the Nazis since he was trapped in Germany and unable to escape. His family was killed in the Dachau concentration camp. Despite the trauma that he still holds from the war, Cohen takes the assignment to cover Richter’s trial with confidence that he will be able to maintain his journalistic neutrality.
For Richter’s part, he doesn’t deny that he is a former Nazi and German army officer. His father served on Hitler’s general staff. However, Richter’s father was also involved in plots to kill Hitler.
Richter’s trial seeks to address the former officer’s actions during World War II. Three countries—England, France, and Israel—are eager to see him extradited, hopefully to their jurisdictions where he can face further justice from aggrieved governments. What Richter is accused of, and what he is supposed to be accused of, is not well defined, however. Cohen makes it part of his mission to clarify the situation.
In the background, forces are stacking up against Richter, represented by his long-time adversary, Anders Hardy, who is involved with helping Stalin and the Russians acquire nuclear secrets from the United States. As the trial continues, the governmental agencies and rogue agents who want Richter finally come together and clash in La Negra, bringing into conflict the CIA, MI6, and Hardy’s own agents. Both Cohen and Richter are ultimately forced into contact with each other as they seek to reconcile the past and unexpected revelations with the very real dangers they face in the present.
A Kirkus Reviews contributor observed: “The densely packed story, mixing the fictional with the historical, features effective pacing . . . and solid prose. The writer called Hitler’s Assassin a “satisfying tale about a German defendant and an American journalist; an impressive first novel.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, April 1, 2018, review of Hitler’s Assassin.
ONLINE
Smashwords, http://www.smashwords.com/ (July 29, 2018), biography of David Bergengren.
David Bergengren
Independent Writing and Editing Professional
Springfield, Massachusetts Area
Writing and Editing
David Bergengren
Biography
A Florida native who attended Dartmouth and served in the U.S. Navy, David Bergengren has taught English composition at universities in New England and Florida, has been a skiwear merchandiser in San Francisco, a desk clerk in Key West, an Associated Press paper pusher in New York City and has worked as a newspaper reporter in Massachusetts, where he and his wife now live. Hitler’s Assassin is his first novel.
About David Bergengren
Work
The Republican (newspaper)
Writer's Center
Education
Dartmouth College
Class of 1968 · Hanover, New Hampshire
Seabreeze Senior High
Class of 1964 · Daytona Beach, Florida
Current City and Hometown
Northampton, Massachusetts
Current city
Daytona Beach, Florida
Hometown
Bergengren, David: HITLER'S ASSASSIN
Kirkus Reviews. (Apr. 1, 2018):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Bergengren, David HITLER'S ASSASSIN Stillwater River Publications (Indie Fiction) $17.95 9, 28 ISBN: 978-0-692-60190-7
A court proceeding in 1952 in South America deals with the long shadow of World War II.
In his debut historical novel, Bergengren gives readers two heroes, Michael Cohen and Johann Richter, and it takes over 400 pages before they can start to trust each other. The tale begins with Richter on trial (actually an extradition hearing) in La Negra, a fictional city high in the Andes. The hearing concerns the actions of the former German army officer during World War II, and even now, the British, the French, and the Israelis all want him. But what is he guilty of, if anything? Cohen, an American journalist, attends the hearing. He was caught in Germany before the war and lost his entire family in Dachau. Later, he would lose his great love, Rachel Stern, in the Israeli War of Independence. Richter saves his love, Elena Stein. (After Germany surrenders, they flee to South America and start a family.) Richter loathed Hitler and the Reich and was bent on assassinating him (after the infamous 1944 attempt failed) and curtailing the war. Years later, agents in MI6 are passing secrets to the Russians (remember Kim Philby and friends?), best represented here by the vile Anders Hardy, Richter's long-time enemy. Things finally come to a boil in La Negra with MI6, the CIA, and Hardy's rogues. The appropriate mayhem, set off by a kidnapping, ensues. All this may seem like a hopeless mishmash--many other characters appear in these pages--but Bergengren deftly pulls it off. The densely packed story, mixing the fictional with the historical, features effective pacing--the author takes his time--and solid prose. The flashbacks of Richter in the '30s and '40s (supposedly written later by the fictional Cohen), which neatly mesh with the main narrative, are often more gripping than the confrontations in 1952. And ironies abound. Richter is in fact a good German--his father was part of the 1944 plot--and he rescued a Jewish woman from a concentration camp. Cohen feels a "sense of connection" to the ex-officer ("As improbable as it seemed, his own life in some ways mirrored Richter's"). The denouement ties things up nicely.
A satisfying tale about a German defendant and an American journalist; an impressive first novel.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Bergengren, David: HITLER'S ASSASSIN." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Apr. 2018. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A532700286/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=49df9d1d. Accessed 14 July 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A532700286