Set in Amsterdam of the 1600s and in Estonia and Germany in the early 20th century as WWI ended and the Nazis came to power, The Spinoza Problem follows the lives of the philosopher Baruch Spinoza and the Nazi ideologue Alfred Rosenberg.

In Spinoza’s Amsterdam, his outspoken questioning of the holy books leads to him being excommunicated from the close-knit Jewish community. He is taken in by friends, and goes on to write some of the most important works of philosophy in the Western world.

Rosenberg, on the other hand, nurtures a fierce anti-Semitism throughout his school years in Estonia, as well as a fanatical admiration for Germany and its people. When his headmaster hears of this, he sets him a task: to read Spinoza, and understand how Rosenberg’s hero Goethe could have held Spinoza, a Jew, in such reverence. This, the ‘Spinoza Problem’, haunts Rosenberg all his life, until eventually, at the height of the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, he makes a personal visit to the Spinoza Association in Amsterdam to confiscate all the books in the library. By doing so, by holding Spinoza’s own books in his own hands and studying them, he hopes to learn about the man, and thus solve the ‘Spinoza Problem’.

This is a book that is fascinating in its detail, as it is in its reimagining of such iconic moments in Western history. Yalom recreates the atmosphere of 17th century Amsterdam beautifully, and he depicts Rosenberg’s psychological state and the Nazi rise to power with incredible insight. If you like your historical fiction to be peopled with vividly drawn characters, do read this.

Kabita Dhara is editor of Readings Monthly