Der schwedische Reiter

A story of mistaken identity, love, and guilt in the form of a perfectly constructed thriller. The world is in disarray in this historical fantasy novel: The war between Augustus the Strong and Charles XII of Sweden has the region of Silesia in a chokehold around 1700. Regiments sweep through the land, exercising merciless lynch justice. The peasants, as well as bands of robbers and vagabonds, fight for their very survival. A Christian bishop offers the persecuted a final refuge: In his quarries and smelting furnaces, "the living dead, forged into carts, groan as they have fled to hell from the gallows." Two men, an aristocratic deserter and a nameless vagabond, stand at a crossroads. The path of the former leads to the enemy Swedish army, to war glory, wealth, and the beautiful Maria Agneta, his cousin. The path of the latter leads into the fire.