FORTUNE AND GLASS
Berlin, 1932.
Germany’s fragile democracy is fracturing, its ideals cracking like thin glass as political violence and paranoia seep into the streets.
In the midst of this tension, Rudi, a young Foreign Ministry official, meets Sara, an unpredictable, morally fierce Jewish woman whose connection with him is immediate and combustible.
By 1943, the Germany they knew has vanished, and Rudi works at the center of Nazi power, performing his duties by day and passing intelligence to the Allies by night— until Sara’s unexpected return threatens to unravel the life he has carefully constructed to survive.
Berlin, 1932.
Germany’s fragile democracy is fracturing, its ideals cracking like thin glass as political violence and paranoia seep into the streets.
In the midst of this tension, Rudi, a young Foreign Ministry official, meets Sara, an unpredictable, morally fierce Jewish woman whose connection with him is immediate and combustible.
By 1943, the Germany they knew has vanished, and Rudi works at the center of Nazi power, performing his duties by day and passing intelligence to the Allies by night— until Sara’s unexpected return threatens to unravel the life he has carefully constructed to survive.
Fortune and Glass is a philosophical spy novel and literary love story about private choices, secret resistance, and the cost of staying human inside a system determined to erase individuality.
Lyrical, atmospheric, and morally complex, it explores the gray zones of living under authoritarianism and asks a timeless question: Who are you when everything falls apart?
For readers who crave the psychological tension of le Carré, the philosophical resonance of Ishiguro, the emotional intensity of Schlink, and the moral suspense of Graham Greene, this is the WWII novel they haven’t read.
Fortune and Glass is not another WWII novel—it’s a love story braided through a psychological spy narrative, unfolding at the moment when ideals, identities, and institutions begin to fracture.
Rudi, a reluctant conspirator inside the German Foreign Ministry, and Sara, the brilliant, unpredictable woman he has never stopped loving, move through a Berlin where resistance and complicity live side by side in every breath.
Their choices become more dangerous and more intimate as the Nazi state tightens its grip, raising the urgent and timeless question: What is to be done when everything is breaking?
Lyrical, morally complex, eerily relevant, and emotionally riveting, Fortune and Glass offers something rare: a WWII-era story for readers who think they’ve read them all— because this one is about who we choose to be, not the war itself.
- Left Field Publishing
- Hardcover
- October 2026
- 390 Pages
- 9781966883074
Buy the Book
$30.00
About John Mutter
Praise
“Mutter’s spy novel wrapped in a love story is compelling and beautifully written, offering a unique narrative amid the crowded field of World War II fiction. Book clubs will find this debut impossible to resist.” —Library Journal, starred review
“An unusually restrained but powerful novel about the darkest of times.”—Kirkus, starred review