The Fire Agent

A LitHub most anticipated book of 2026

"A spy novel, a war story, a love story--brilliant historical fiction that is hardly fictional at all."--Graham Yost, executive producer of The Americans and Slow Horses

"A page-turner about spies in prewar Tokyo with the weight of moral inquiry at its heart. A remarkable achievement."--Joseph Kanon, author of Shanghai and The Good German

An unforgettable, sweeping novel of espionage, love, and war that reframes our understanding of the first half of the twentieth century.

Born into an aristocratic German Jewish family, Ernst Baerwald is a gifted linguist, talented musician, and fearless idealist. When he's recruited in 1900 to become a spy--his cover working for a company that would become the notorious chemical conglomerate IG Farben--his life becomes an extraordinary adventure spanning two continents, two world wars, and impossible choices that will haunt him forever.

From Frankfurt to Milan to Tokyo, Ernst moves through a world of intrigue and passion. He battles Japan's Yakuza while entertaining its royalty and hosts Europe's most brilliant performers. He falls deeply in love . . . with two women. He witnesses the rise of fascism in both Japan and Germany. And when the forces of fascism in Japan meet the horrors of Hitler's Germany, this German Jew faces an impossible choice: destroy the country he loves most or become complicit in unimaginable evil.

Based on the life of author David Baerwald's grandfather, The Fire Agent is historical fiction that reads like a thriller. It carries us from nineteenth-century German idealism to the onset of chemical warfare; from Japan's organized crime syndicates to FDR's spy networks; from the Nanking Massacre to the dawn of the Cold War. At its center is the unforgettable character of Ernst--a man who has the courage to fight for what's right, even when the cost is everything. The Fire Agent resonates deeply with our own time, providing a lens through which we come to see, and question, ourselves.