Unity

In his first novel since the best-selling Easter, Michael Arditti explores the personalities and politics involved in the making of a lost 1970s film by a German director about the relationship between Unity Mitford and Hitler. The completion of the film was destroyed by a terrorist outrage, triggered by the growing sympathy of its leading actress for the cause of the Red Army Faction and her admiration of a charismatic Palestinian activist. Arditti himself features in the narrative as, almost thirty years later, he attempts to uncover the truth about two friends who took part in the film. He consults the scriptwriter's letters and the diaries of a Hollywood child star turned crusading socialist. He interviews two of the German actors and the film's producer, an Auschwitz survivor who has become a high-powered pornographer. He reads a revealing family memoir and corresponds with a Hollywood mogul. These testimonies - ranging from 1930s Britain to post-war Germany - are often conflicting and prove to be deeply disturbing. Startlingly original in concept and treatment, Unity is a profound exploration of the nature and consequences of evil.