I acquired this book on a "blind date with a book" shelf, superbly pleased by its premise: Sci-Fi alternate history? I am so there. 
 This may be better appreciated by someone who knows more of history, or understands the gritty details of WWII. The USA is kind of a mess, no longer "United": part is controlled by the Nazis, part by the Japanese, and some hazy area in the middle that managed to stay somewhat independent. And we have a bunch of crooked folk--government officials and business owners and hidden Jews--who are trying to survive it best they can. 
 The most fascinating part is everyone's reading this banned book, which imagines what would've happened if the Allies had won. That's right: An alternate history that contemplates an alternate history, a.k.a. an alternative to what actually happened. Genius. 
 There's a lot going on in this seemingly small book, and a lot of characters to keep track of. Who is it about? Everyone, in their intertwined ways; then it's about politics itself; then it's about the banned book and its mysterious author. If you, like me, have only a fleeting knowledge of German politics during WWII, there's quite a bit of brain-scrambling. But I can also recognize the genius and the insane amount of research that goes into imagining something of this magnitude. 
 Shout-out to the one badass lady--Juliana--who is a judo teacher because men are terrible, who's also probably the most fleshed-out character of them all. I don't blame her for disappearing on her husband, because oh man is that guy a whiner.