With recent books like The News From Paraguay or even The Plot Against America interweaving fact with fiction there have been some interesting discussions around the net about the place and use of history (or "what if" history) in literature (see here for an example). What is its purpose, when does it work, when does it distract, etc. As a former grad student in history and a reader of fiction I find the discussion particularly interesting even if I don't have much to add.

I bring this up because I have just finished another historical fiction based novel, Rosa by Jonathan Rabb. The Rosa of the title is Rosa Luxemburg the famous socialist revolutionary. But what is interesting is that Rosa is not the lead character; in fact her death sets in motion the central intrigue of the book. Instead the central character is Chief Inspector Nikolai Hoffner. Hoffner is investigating a grizzly series of murders when Rosa's body turns up matching the M.O. of the serial killer. Suddenly, the case has "political" overtones and Hoffner's life gets a great deal more complicated.

Rosa takes place during that tension-filled time just after World War I when chaos and violence ruled Germany; when socialists sought revolution only to create a backlash that ultimately led to Hitler. Hoffner, whose roots are awkwardly both Russian and Jewish, is caught up in this tension as he tries to solve his case while fending off the "Polpo" or political police. His best friend and partner having been killed in the war, he has recently been assigned a new, rather naive, assistant whose girlfriend Hoffner feels inexplicably drawn to. At the same time his devotion to his work, the nature of that work, and his prior philandering have ostracized him from his family. Hoffner is a weary man stuck in a world teetering on the brink of destruction.

What is interesting about Rosa is how it almost defies categorization and mixes genres. Obviously it is a work of historical fiction with central events (the Spartakus revolution) and characters (Rosa, her lover and fellow revolutionary Leo Jogiches, plus a number of others) taken from history. But it is also a sort of police procedural, following Hoffner as he tries to unwrap the mystery of his case. Throw in the political angle and the Polpo and it starts to read like a political/espionage thriller; a race to prevent disaster and uncover corruption at the highest levels. Obviously Rabb also uses components of the traditional novel, exploring the interior character of Hoffner. The result is a complex, multi-layered, and suspenseful plot. Rabb is proposing a historical "what-if"; seeking to explain what we know by filling in the details via fiction. But that is not really central to the success of the story. Regardless if you believe Rabb has put together a plausible explanation for the delay in finding Rosa's body, he has created an entertaining and engaging work.