The Boys from Brazil

This is my favorite book in the world.

In someone else’s hands, the tale of a global Nazi conspiracy to restore the Third Reich to its former glory by cloning Adolf Hitler would probably come off as utter insanity. But Levin makes you believe every word of it, funneling the story through the eyes of Nazi hunter Yakov Liebermann (based on Simon Wiesenthal) and infamous doctor of the Auschwitz concentration camp, Josef Mengele.

Cloning is a medical technology with terrific dramatic potential, and The Boys from Brazil was one of the first novels to involve cloning a major historical figure. The bad guy behind this plan is the infamous Nazi Dr. Josef Mengele, the “Angel of Death,” so no points for guessing who he’s trying to recreate, but the plot is still exciting as an aging Nazi hunter races against time to stop the madness. The book notably pointed out that a cloned human would only be a physical copy of the original unless they were provided with a similar series of life… show more.

Doctor Josef Mengele, the worst of the mad scientists, is in hiding after the war but planning a comeback, heading a secret project to genetically reincarnate Hitler. The most frightening part about his plan to bring back the Nazi Fuhrer is the degree of scientific rigor in the biology and psychology underlying the design.