Gent Sassenthin, a medical-school dropout from Berlin, intelligent, shy and uncompromising, is one of hundreds of German jihadists who have joined the “Islamic State”. In Raqqa, the Syrian capital of the “caliphate,” he amputates the hands of thieves. But suddenly, after months of silence, he contacts his parents. Does he really want out? And what’s the information he’s offering worth? The message from inside the caliphate sets off a chain reaction. The journalist Merle Schwalb smells the biggest story of her career. The homeland-security agent Sami Mukhtar at the Joint Counter-Terrorism Center in Berlin is hoping for a case that will finally let him prove himself. The social worker Titus Brandt from the “Amal” counseling center keeps a dangerous secret to himself for too long. What happens when everyone wants the right thing – but nothing is as it seems?
A political thriller that could hardly be more topical: How overextended are the security services? How should we deal with terrorists from the midst of our society? And above all: What actually goes through their heads?
