-Steve, good to see you, my friend.

-Kevin.

Isn't it nice a Republican and Democrat can appear together -- without screaming at each other?

Books bring us together.

-Now, I think what you heard in the intro, though, there is your bio included four years as the Chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Describe what your role was there vis-à-vis your Republican colleagues?

-So my, uh -- my first -- It's a great question.

The imperative I had was never to try and defeat Kevin Yoder.

That was number one.

Couldn't do it.

Um, so the DCCC or the NRCC, National Republican Campaign Committee are the campaign arms of the respective caucuses and conferences in the House of Representatives.

So my job as the Chairman of the DCCC, which put every gray hair on this head, uh, was to elect Democrats, uh, and defeat Republicans where we thought we could compete, which, uh, was -- -You might get applause for that in this room, by the way.

-Yeah.

Yeah.

-But we, uh -- So we're on opposite sides of the aisle, but it's fun to see Steve.

-You were pleasure to work with.

-Thank you.

Yeah, and same to you.

And it's fun to be here to talk about your book, by the way.

"Einstein Conspiracy," which is actually a really awesome book.

I read this thing.

I'm like, I didn't know members of Congress could read, much less write a book.

-[ Laughter ] -And, uh -- -Tell them, how does a member of Congress read a book?

Tell them.

What's the -- Where do we begin with?

Former member of Congress.

You begin at the index.

-Yes.

Oh, the first thing you do, if there's any book about something that happened in D.C., you make sure your name is not included.

In fact, when I opened your book, I somehow wanted to make sure I wasn't in this Einstein story.

-I was going to dedicate it to you.

But my wife -- -No one in Congress has ever been called Einstein.

-I can tell you that much.

-[ Chuckles ] -Uh, okay, so those jokes aside... ...uh, I did -- so you're from New York.

Uh, lifelong New York guy?

-Lifelong New Yorker.

-Uh, you represented your district for 16 years.

-Yeah.

-Um, you actually flipped the district from a Republican, right?

-Rick Lazio.

-Rick Lazio.

Held it for 16 years, then Tom Suozzi, and then George Santos.

-George Santos.

-We kind of call it -the George -- -Has anybody ever heard of -- -We call it the George Santos district.

-Yes.

-Okay.

I just want to make sure.

Um, and when you left Congress -- I think this is fascinating.

You know, there's a lot of conversation about what do people do when they leave Congress.

And there's this -- there's this well-known revolving door where members of Congress leave and then go open bookstores.

-[ Laughter ] -They -- They use their -- They use their political connections to sort of, you know, corner the book market.

-Yeah.

That's exactly right.

As opposed to going into lobbying.

-Yeah.

No, no, that's a -- -Bring a lawyer.

-That's a rare path.

-Yeah.

-That I've never taken.

-Yes.

-Um, but talk to us about that.

So how did we get to this point?

'Cause that is -- I mean, all kidding aside, that is a unique, um, role for a former member of Congress.

I think I read that you're the only former member of Congress -who owns a bookstore.

-Mm-hmm.

-Um, uh, tell us what made you decide to -- to do that?

-Well, yeah, 16 years in Congress, 4 as the Chair of the DCCC.

Um, look, we all have immense pressures in whatever jobs we have.

I-I think it's fair to say that whether you're a Republican or a Democrat, the pressures of being a member of Congress, uh, are -- are unique, and we all need our -- our refuges.

We -- We need our sanctuaries, our places where we can find some peace and quiet.

And mine was always in a bookstore.

And so my scheduler, uh, was told, no matter where I was in the world, in the world, I needed on my schedule to know where was the closest bookseller.

-Interesting.

-You've been to Afghanistan.

You've been to Iraq.

I take it you've been to these places around the world, and so have I. I shopped for books in Kabul, uh, because I just needed to know where I could find books.

Um, and, uh, after all of that pressure, it came time for me to decide whether I wanted to run for another term.

Nancy Pelosi was talking to me about succeeding her.

Now, she wasn't ready to move, but we were meeting with Chris Van Hollen, Nancy Pelosi talking about her succession, and she said "When and if I decide to go, I think you should -- you should run among others."

And the more I thought about it... ...the more I realized that not only did I not want to be the Democratic leader, I didn't even want to run for re-election.

-Yeah, you -- you left voluntarily and -- and -- -and then went to Oyster Bay.

-Went to Oyster Bay.

You know, most members of Congress, when they decide not to run, it's because, you know, they're concerned about losing.

My decision was based on the fact that I was going to win and continue this fundraising regime.

I don't know about you, but I just hated it.

-Yeah, it's exhausting.

-So I went back home, and I said to my wife, Cara, who's here, I said, "You know, I'm not going to run for re-election.

We should open up a bookstore."

And she said, "What do you know about running a bookstore?

And I said, "What did I know about, like, helping to run the country?"

And she said, "That's my point exactly."

[ Laughter ] -I like her sense of humor.

So tell us about the bookstore.

It's, uh -- It's called Theodore's?

-It's called Theodore's Books, named after Theodore Roosevelt... -Alright.

-...in Oyster Bay, who lived just up the block, who read and wrote voraciously.

When he died, he left 7,000 volumes on his shelves.

-And you're an appropriator.

-Mm-hmm.

-And I was an appropriator.

One of the things that I'm so proud of is that we were able to appropriate funds to preserve every book... -Yeah.

-...on the shelves where they were on the night that he died, uh, and he was our hometown hero.

And so it's my homage to Theodore Roosevelt.

-Well, I'd love to come to it some day.

-You are welcome.

-I've never been to Oyster Bay.

What's Oyster Bay like?

Is it -- Sounds idyllic.

-It is idyllic.

Uh, it has great Revolutionary War history.

George Washington's spy network was headquartered in Oyster Bay, in a house that is just behind Theodore's Books.

It's called Raynham Hall.

And that is where Robert Townsend sent messages to George Washington in New York City and then Basking Ridge, New Jersey.

So it's got this great Revolutionary War, -Theodore Roosevelt history.

-Yeah.

Well, it sounds quaint, and sounds like a-a very historical place.

-It's no Johnson County, Kansas, I want you to know, but it'll -- -Well, I mean, that's the center of the universe.

Uh, but it, uh -- i-i-in -- your book, which we'll get to in a minute, is partly featured in that area, right?

Isn't some of the book take place... -Yes.

It does.

-...in the Oyster Bay?

So, there's a lot of -- -There are pieces of Theodore Roosevelt in there, and people who worked with Roosevelt all integrated into this historic spy thriller.

-Okay.

So not only are you, um, preserving, uh, history and -- and you've -- you've got this wonderful small business, you're a writer.

And so you've written now three books.

-Third novel, yeah.

-Three novels.

-Yes.

Yeah.

-Okay.

And, um - -And tell us about the three novels and -- and what inspired you to -- to sort of do that because it's one thing to maybe be a small business owner.

It's another thing to -- to take on writing a-a book.

And I will say a lot of members of Congress, like, write books, but it's usually not novels, right?

It's usually, uh, something about their experiences in Congress.

uh, that is the typical, you know -- something about leadership, right?

But that's not what you -- you did.

-No, I love writing fiction, uh, and so the first two novels I did were pure political satires.

And, again, kind of coping mechanism.

You know, I represented a district that was 30 miles from Manhattan on 9/11, uh, and suddenly found myself just kind of immersed in -- in that world.

I was a town councilman in Huntington, New York.

I didn't know much about Afghanistan or the world or geostrategic politics.

And suddenly I'm sitting in the Oval Office with George W. Bush and in the Roosevelt Room, in the Cabinet Room, watching these amazing decisions being made.

I would hear things, most of which were very serious and sobering, but every once in a while, I would hear something.

I would say, "Oh, nobody would believe me if I told them that -- you know, that was just said," without being partisan.

So I started kind of writing these down.

That became my first novel, "The Global War on Morris," uh, which is a satire about this one guy.

Lives in New York.

Nobody really knows him.

He just doesn't want to get involved.

But, uh, he's somehow identified as a major terrorist when his worst crime, uh, was thinking about cheating on his wife.

Now suddenly he's, like, viewed to be an international terrorist.

So I wrote that.

Then I wrote a book, "Big Guns," um, about the influence of the gun lobby.

Um, and then, for those of you who know about books, particularly our friends from the Library of Congress, the satire market, political satire market died.

Collapsed.

Just collapsed.

My timing couldn't have been worse.

Why?

Because we now live in an age where political satire is all around us.

Left, right, people are getting information from social media and from late-night monologues, and they're not paying $22, $28 for a book that's political satire, which is why I decided to move into, uh, historic, um, spy thriller.

-Yeah.

Well, this is a historical spy thriller.

So for those of you who haven't read the book, as I mentioned earlier, I think it's really a page turner.

-It's riveting.

It -- It -- -Thank you, my friend.

-Appreciate it.

-I found it really interesting.

There's some twists in the plot that, um -- really fascinating.

You had to -- took a lot of work to write a book this complex.

I mean, you go deep into the characters.

There's a lot of plot development.

You can tell you were thinking about how it all intertwined and, um -- How -- How long does it take to write a book like this?

What's that process like?

-This took four years, uh, and, you know, I can tell you what triggered it and give you a sense of what the story is.

Um, I-I don't know about you, Kevin, but I would find myself walking in the Capitol surrounded by history, and I was mesmerized by it.

I would be late to meetings because I got stuck gazing at the plaque where Abraham Lincoln sat when he was a member of the House of Representatives.

I once was in the Oval Office, and I couldn't pay attention because my mind was going to, "That's the desk that Theodore Roosevelt would have sat at," or Franklin Delano Roosevelt or Eisenhower.

One of the most, uh, frightening questions I ever got asked in all of my political career was this -- "Congressman, are you paying attention to me?"

And that was the president of United States?

Because I was just, like, looking around the Oval -- [ Laughter ] Anyway, um, and so I just loved, uh, history.

-Um -- -By the way, I'll just say what I loved most about that experience is when it was nighttime and it was quiet in there.

-My God, when you have the whole building to yourself.

-Like, if you were the only person sitting in Statuary Hall or sitting in the rotunda, I always felt like you could almost hear history -sort of quietly echoing... -Yes, you could.

-...off the wall.

You just felt it.

Do you know what I mean?

-In the room that separates the rotunda from the Senate, right, um that's -- it's the old Senate lobby which survived the burning of the Capitol.

-Mm.

-Um, that's the original room, and you could hear those echoes.

Anyway, I would love these, like, historic hinges.

I'd find something and want to know everything about it.

And so I learned, one day, after returning to Long Island... ...that, in real life, Albert Einstein lived in this remote beach waterfront area on Long Island on the North Fork.

And being the romantic that I am, Kevin, I said to my wife, "Let's go see if we can find the cottage where he lived."

Isn't that romantic?

She's like, "Can we at least get dinner after that?"

Right?

And I found this cottage, and it's in its original condition.

And then I learned that, in real life, that cottage, the porch that I was looking at, was where he wrote one of the most important letters -in human history... -Mm.

-...that no one -- that hardly anybody knows about.

And that was a letter that he wrote to FDR saying, "Adolf Hitler is developing an atom bomb.

We need one, too."

-Mm.

-And I began thinking, "Wait a minute.

I thought Einstein was a pacifist.

How could he write a letter like that saying, 'Build a bomb'?

And why was he living in that house?

Why that house?"

And I began researching.

I began learning everything about Einstein, and I learned that, in fact, Einstein lived there.

He wrote that letter.

Hitler had tried to assassinate Einstein twice.

The FBI was, in fact, trying to protect Albert Einstein.

There was a pervasive Nazi spy ring across the United States, and I put it all together in this historic thriller.

It's a race... ...for a Nazi spy to get close enough to Einstein to do him harm and the FBI trying to protect him, uh, in 1939, all based on real facts.

-And it's really interesting from a historical perspective, as you've laid that out, because it's a -- you know, it's a -- it's a spy thriller, but you're learning a lot about history that I-I certainly wasn't entirely familiar with.

And we know Einstein as the -- the genius, you know, right?

But we don't necessarily know him as the refugee, as the activist, right, and his role in, I think the, you know -- the atomic sort of race is not fully clear to all of us, right?

And so the role he had in that, um, and I think if you've seen the "Oppenheimer" movie, you see he plays a little bit of a role in that, right, but he's not central to that at all.

Now, Hitler was not aware of that, right?

Didn't Hitler think he was more involved?

Isn't that part of the reason he wanted to assassinate him, or -- -So in -- in real life, uh, during my research, I learned that Hitler was just obsessed with having a bomb.

In fact, for those of you who are World War II historians, you know that Hitler had two objectives in invading Belgium and Czechoslovakia.

One, he wanted the space.

He wanted to expand.

Two, they both had uranium mines, and he wanted the uranium to build a bomb.

And so those were his objectives.

The problem he had was, ironically, he had purged Germany of the most talented scientists and physicists.

Why?

Because they were Jews.

And so he loses Jews.

He calls their research "Juden physique," meaning "Jewish physics," "dark physics."

He replaces that with Aryan physics.

He can't build a bomb now because all the smartest physicists have left.

They've gone to England, they've gone to America, they've gone elsewhere.

And he's very worried that Albert Einstein is going to contribute to the American Atomic Bomb Research Program.

And that's why he wants to do harm to Einstein.

-But, in fact, Einstein really wasn't actively involved in that, right?

-That's exactly right.

And this is why the whole Oppenheimer thing is -- is a bit of a puzzle.

Einstein was a deeply conflicted character.

If I've done anything in this book, it is to -- to help you understand Albert Einstein outside of the -- the one-layer caricature, the wacky hair, the craziness, very conflicted.

Um... he did not want to help anybody build an atomic bomb because he was a lifelong pacifist.

He realizes that if Hitler gets a bomb before the United States, it's over.

It's completely over.

He brings himself to write that letter to FDR.

-He later renounces the letter.

-Mm.

-After Hiroshima and Nagasaki, -Interesting.

-...he begins to feel a bit of remorse.

When asked -- it was Einstein who started the Manhattan Project.

He's the guy who said to FDR, -"Start the program."

-Mm-hmm.

-His letter is what... -His letter, yeah, yeah.

-...is what instigated the Manhattan Project.

-And so, in fact, Einstein writes the letter in July and then August.

It takes until October to get it to FDR.

Now, picture this.

You've been in the Oval Office.

I've been in the Oval Office.

Picture this.

Finally, the letter arrives in the Oval Office in October, and a friend of FDR's reads the entire letter and Roosevelt, after listening to this, he says, "Pa, get in here," and "Pa" is Pa Watson, who's the private secretary to the president, and Watson runs in and Roosevelt says, "What I'm being told is that Einstein's, uh -- is that Hitler's going to blow up the world.

-Do something."

-Mm.

-Do something.

Pa Watson runs out, picks up the phone, calls a scientist says, "The president wants us to research nuclear -- uh, an atomic bomb."

That's what begins the Manhattan Project.

Einstein refused to participate in the Manhattan Project.

His -- He said his fingerprints were on the letter, but he didn't want his fingers on the bomb.

-And did he say in the letter, "You need to do the same," or, "Just be aware that Hitler is trying to -- you got to beat him to it"?

-So you can get the letter.

Um...it -- it's, um -- He says -- He's convincing FDR of the science.

He says, "The science is there.

If you split an atom, it can have a chain reaction.

And the Nazis are developing this, and we cannot afford to allow them to -- -to acquire it before we do."

-To get to it before we do.

-Now, how did he know the Nazis were developing it?

Because he was visit-- right?

Isn't there -- The back-channel conversations were really critical there.

-Yeah.

So, uh, a guy named Otto Hahn, a German scientist, in December of 1938, he actually splits the atom and comes up with a chain reaction.

There's another scientist, a Jewish scientist from Hungary, a complete eccentric named Leo Szilard.

Leo Szilard hears about this and says, "Oh, my God, if you split an atom, you can have an atom bomb, ultimately, that will destroy the world."

And he calls Einstein in real life.

He says, "They've split an atom.

Chain reaction.

They're going to have an atom bomb."

And Einstein refused to accept the science.

He didn't believe it.

Months go by, and he says to Szilard, "Prove it, prove it," and Szilard splits an atom at -- in Pupin Hall at Columbia University.

Finally goes out to that cottage on July 12th and says, "Here's the proof."

Einstein still didn't buy it.

Still didn't buy it.

And then, as Szilard is teaching him and telling him what German scientists are doing, Einstein looks up and says, "Now, why didn't I think of that?

We need to warn the president."

And they begin writing.

-S,o as part of this, there are a lot of characters in your book that are moving this information back and forth.

How much of that is based on history, and how much of that is based on sort of your imagination, what could have been going on and the stuff that's imagination, how did you sort of develop that?

-This is a really great question.

The problem with writing historic fiction is that you're always on the precipice of writing too much history versus too much fiction.

And you could fall in either direction.

So, you know, there's a scene based on real life in the book that's now four pages -- 20,000 Nazis gathered at Madison Square Garden in February of 1939... ...to chant, "Sieg heil!

Sieg heil!

Sieg heil!"

20,000 in Madison Square Garden.

The marquee over the door at Madison Square Garden that night said, "pro-America rally."

because they wouldn't say pro-Nazi rally and under it, "Rangers play on Wednesday."

So I love -- I mean, I just loved writing about that vivid, historic detail, like, putting you there, putting you on the scene, understanding how it would have smelled, how would it would have looked like, what you would have heard.

When I originally wrote that scene, Kevin, it was 20 pages, and my agent called and said, "If you want to write a book about the Madison Square Garden Nazi rally, go for it, but you are writing propulsive fiction, and you have a bargain with readers.

They're going to pay $23 for your book, and you're going to keep them turning the pages, keep them entertained."

So it's always about the tension of keeping readers entertained and informed.

A constant balance.

-That's really fascinating.

So talk about that period, too, because I thought that was something that I hadn't understood as well as you wrote about the Nazi movement within the United States.

And, um, you know, the folks living in that community with, you know, Hitler Street and Goebbels Drive and all that, that was really something.

-How many of you have ever heard of Camp Siegfried?

Anybody ever hear of that?

Alright, well, uh, Camp Siegfried was in my community.

This actually was a place.

It was a Nazi training camp in a place called Yaphank, Long Island.

It works its way into the book.

At Camp Siegfried, the streets were named -- I'm not making this up -- Adolf Hitler Street.

Hermann Goering Street, Joseph Goebbels Street.

It wasn't that there was a Nazi spy network across New York and the United States.

-These were Americans, right?

-These were Americans who -- -Exercising their free speech.

-That's exactly right.

Exercising their free-speech rights.

So swastika flags would fly next to American flags.

And they would teach young people how to march in goose-step technique.

So it wasn't that there was this pervasive Nazi spy network that was underground that the FBI couldn't handle.

It wasn't underground.

It was in communities, uh, across America, and that -- they were instrumental in passing information back and forth between, uh, Berlin and the United States.

In fact, anybody here from Long Island knows that, back then, what was our -- our great, uh -- great industry was the defense industry.

This is where Grumman was and Sperry, Fairchild Republic.

The Nazis had plants in every single one of those defense companies bringing home blueprints, putting them on ships, leaving American ports, going back to Germany.

-I-I found that really something.

And then when you -- when you tie all that in with the sort of -- Einstein being pretty close.

I mean, there's a lot going on in this one little portion of New York, which, clearly, you're from that area.

I mean, it sort of really -- Now, is any of this your district?

-No.

-Okay.

-No.

-You wouldn't -- Yeah.

-Yeah.

-Uh... [ Laughter ] -Um [chuckles] so, um -- and -- and so the -- the big sort of crescendo of this book, in "The Einstein Conspiracy," and you can see on the front, -there's a -- there's a target and Einstein's in the scope, um, is either that -- some attempt to neutralize Einstein.

-Correct.

Correct.

-Talk about...how those -- How -- How close was this in real life, these sort of moments?

-So in real life, we do know that Hitler had tried to assassinate Einstein on several occasions.

When Einstein left Germany, he actually went to Caltech to teach for two years.

His plan was to return to Germany.

He couldn't because Hitler had been appointed chancellor, just as he was getting ready to go back to Germany.

So instead he goes to Belgium.

Einstein sent the Feme, which was a Nazi hit squad, to kill Einstein in Belgium.

The queen of Belgium assigned a security detail to protect Einstein, but Einstein was just so vulnerable and just loved his privacy.

True story -- The Belgian security detail said to Einstein, "You can't take your walks anymore because there's a hit squad ready to kill you."

He said, "Okay.

Okay.

I won't."

Next day, he goes for a walk.

He comes back.

Elsa, his protector, is furious.

She says, "Albert!

There's a $5,000 bounty on your head!"

And Einstein says -- and this was recorded -- "Five thousand dollars?

I didn't know my head was worth so much."

That was Albert Einstein.

They then tried to assassinate him in London.

His last speech in Europe, before he got on the Westmorland and sailed to America, was asking for help for Jewish refugees from Germany.

They tried to kill him there.

British intelligence picks it up.

They get him on a boat.

He comes to America.

He arrives in America very sullen.

He loved the charm of Europe.

And now this raw, barren, kind of modern place.

He was rather depressed.

But he says to himself, "At least I'm safe here.

The Nazis will never get me here.

They're no longer a threat."

Then a Madison Square Garden rally with 20,000 Nazis in New York City Adolf Hitler Street.

Hermann Goering Street.

Joseph Goebbels Street.

He realizes he's never quite that safe.

-Mm-hmm.

And so the story finishes.

Einstein goes on and he -- What is the rest of his life like in the U.S.?

Does he ever return?

-I'm glad you mentioned that, because I know we have Q&A coming up.

So I will tell you that one of the concerns of my editor -- or my agent was, "How can you write a book about an assassination attempt against Albert Einstein?

Everybody knows that he lived."

Like, you know, we know how it ends.

And I said, "Have you ever read 'Day of the Jackal'"?

"Day of the Jackal" is about an assassination attempt against de Gaulle.

Probably one of the most successful spy thrillers in history -- or at least 20th-century history.

Well, we know that de Gaulle wasn't assassinated, but you become so immersed in the historic detail and the antagonist, the assassin, in a bizarre, perverse way, you begin rooting for him.

You know he's gonna fail, but you can't understand how, 'cause he's so perfect, which was the basis for Anton Günther, the spy who was sent to America to try and assassinate Einstein.

Einstein spends his time on the North Fork, returns to Princeton, lives out his life.

Dies in 1954, I believe.

Yeah.

But he's still very conflicted about his role in the American atom bomb that is dropped on Japan.

-So that's the end of this b-- Is there a sequel to this, then?

-Depends on how many books you guys buy.

-Yeah.

Okay.

-My agent keeps saying, "Get your numbers up," and yes, there'll be a sequel.

-So what's next?

Are you already working on something?

-I'm thinking about the Kevin Yoder story.

-[ Laughs ] -Yeah.

Yeah, I've got a couple of ideas, but right now I'm on book tour and want to finish this out, see how it does, and then we'll decide what's next.

-Okay.

Well, if you have any interesting ideas, I'm sure you're taking notes.

Maybe you go walk back through the capital and see if... -Weren't you inspired during those?

-I'll go with you.

-Let's take a walk.

-We'll see what catches our attention.

-Let's take a walk together.

-I just want to say again I think it's a wonderful book.

-Thank you.

-I recommend it.

Anything in the book that we haven't covered that you'd like to share or any sort of interesting historical nugget that... -Let's... -Let's get to some questions.

-Let's open it up if anybody has questions or comments.

But don't ask Kevin or me about any votes we may have cast... -Right.

This is not a town hall.

-...that pissed you off during our time in the House.

-None of that.

-Yeah.

So if you want, we have two microphones up here.

If you want to come up front, it would be great.

-Audience member: Welcome.

Thank you both.

-Thank you.

-I've read a lot of your stuff in my studies.

In international studies, we read some of your books.

But why now did you pick to publish this story?

What was so significant about the era of time now to publish this?

-It's a great question.

-Is there something relevant in society?

-I didn't write the book to make a point or to preach, certainly not to take a political position.

I'm out of that... out of that business.

And really, it was triggered simply by my historic curiosity.

Saw this cottage.

Started wondering.

My imagination started firing up.

So it was kind of an organic start.

However, I will say this.

I don't care whether right or the left, we have seen as Americans our share of raw bigotry and hatred on both sides, coming from too many people reflecting ideological extremes.

And when I learned about the open support of the Nazis and then kind of looked at news headlines talking about bigotry on the left and the right, that became, for me, more resonant.

It helped me continue writing.

Literally, there'd be times when I'd be writing about that Madison Square Garden rally and then hear about eruptions of hatred again -- left and right.

And I was like, "Okay.

Here's the thing.

This country finds moments where we allow our hatreds to flare, but there are good people who take principled stands against it, and we need to remind ourselves that it takes that kind of work to oppose bigotry and hatred wherever it arises."

-Okay.

Sir?

-Audience member: Thank you for the synopsis of the novel and the discussion.

My question is regarding Mr.

Israel's assertion that Adolf Hitler very early on wanted to get the bomb.

-Yes.

-What I have read is that actually when he went to one of the labs -- I don't know whether it was the one with Otto Hahn -- he said, "Oh, this is all bunkum.

You know, we just --" And in fact, they say that if Hahn and company had got the active support of the Nazi government, they would have got, you know, like the Manhattan Project.

They would have got the bomb much earlier than us.

-So, my research suggests that Hitler was very much animated by a desire to have an atom bomb because he believed that once he had an atom bomb, there would be no war, nobody would oppose him.

Nobody.

Not the Brits, not the French, not the Americans.

Once he had the bomb, there would be no resistance.

And he was counting on several of his top scientists, including, if you see the cover, this is a very dashing-looking guy, very charismatic, smiling.

That's Heisenberg.

And Heisenberg he calls on to lead the effort.

And Heisenberg's trying to figure out, "Can I actually create this?"

Now, there's a lot of debate on whether Heisenberg intentionally and surreptitiously slowed down the research 'cause he didn't want Hitler to have a bomb, or was he playing ball with Hitler because he wanted the glory of giving Hitler the bomb?

We don't know.

But we do know that Einstein was very -- I'm sorry -- that Hitler was very serious about trying to get a bomb.

Can I just point out one other thing?

One of the things I love about writing a book is, you know, you begin to really research these moments that are almost hidden.

And so, since I'm holding this up, my editor said, "All right.

Do you have a book cover in mind?"

And they gave me all this artwork, and I didn't particularly like it.

And then I found this photograph, this real-life photograph of the Solvay Conference in the 1920s.

And if you get the book and look very carefully, you see all these amazing scientists.

The smartest people on the face of the earth are surrounding Einstein in this photo.

If you look carefully, as I did, you'll notice there's only one scientist holding on to his chair, and that's Albert Einstein.

The other scientists -- I don't know if you can see the book -- but the other scientists, hands clasped, arms folded, very serious.

Einstein's holding on.

I was wondering... why was he holding on to his chair?

To me, that suggests a sense of vulnerability.

He's the only one grabbing his chair.

He must have felt some insecurity.

And that's why I chose this photograph.

And if you look at Heisenberg -- you don't realize this -- Heisenberg is almost mocking him.

Heisenberg is just kind of big smile for the camera.

Kind of cocky.

He was Hitler's promise to create the atom bomb.

-Interesting.

Sir.

-Audience member: Thank you for a fascinating conversation.

-It beats speaking on the floor of the House.

I'll tell you that.

Right?

[ Laughter ] -And it's so impressive that you did so much original historical research in real life, as you put it.

In view of that, I'm curious as to why you chose to write this as an historical novel rather than a work of history with actual facts.

Had you thought about writing it as a purely historical work as opposed to a novel based on history?

-What a great question.

Originally I started writing it as nonfiction.

And I just didn't think it was interesting enough or would reach a broad enough market.

I own a bookstore, so I now have the added advantage of understanding what books sell and what books don't sell.

And historic spy fiction continues to sell.

And so I also made a commercial decision -- that I wanted to do a book that would have broader appeal than a nonfiction.

It's a great question.

-Okay.

Thank you.

-Thank you.

-Hi, ma'am.

-Audience member: Hi.

So, my question is sort of like his, but a little bit to the left.

So, you mentioned three main things that perked my ear up.

I'm a librarian and -- -Mm.

Thank you for your work.

-Thank you for your work.

[ Laughter, applause ] You mentioned three main things that really perked my ear up as a librarian.

You talk about your research.

You talked about the photo and how you found this photo.

You talked about the recording of Einstein and the bounty and him talking about the $5,000.

And you also talked about this letter between Einstein and Roosevelt.

How and where did you find those?

I suspect that they were in somebody's archive somewhere, but I just want you to talk about the research.

-Well, Kevin Yoder can tell you one of the benefits about being a former member of Congress is that people return your phone calls, right?

More people returned your phone calls when you were a current member of Congress.

-Yeah.

Not as many now.

-Not as many.

And so I just called everybody I could.

And so I called the IAS, the Institute of Applied Science, in Princeton, where Einstein taught.

And I got on the phone with the director, and I said, "I'm writing this book.

I want to visit.

I want to see Einstein's papers.

Can I get into the house where he lived?"

And they opened up the house to me.

I got to hang out and commune with Albert Einstein in his bedroom.

Is that... Oh.

Okay.

Got to his office, got to the kitchen, got to go to the front porch where he would walk out every day and greet Princeton students.

I started with Walter Isaacson's seminal biography about Einstein, then read a bunch of Einstein books about Einstein.

Not many members of Congress have a grasp for quantum physics, so I was a little bit challenged in that.

Read as much as I could about Einstein and just went deeper and deeper, which is why it took four years, but relied on many sources, original sources, including the diaries of Leo Szilard, who was the guy -- the first person to split an atom in the United States.

-Sir.

-Audience member: Thank you.

I do think that if you were to choose to one day follow up this book, actually a historical book that would explore the relationships between these scientists in the picture, I think it would be a commercial success.

Something you might consider.

-I'll give it a shot.

Can I give you the e-mail of my agent, please?

[ Laughter ] -You partially answered my question, but I do have a follow-up.

-Sure.

-So, Werner Heisenberg was a very talented physicist, regardless of whether his attitude was cocky or not.

And I'm curious if he had any relationship with Einstein or with those who were close to Einstein... -Yes.

-...what you might comment on.

-He did.

Einstein was still, you know, '20s, early '30s, he was revered among the scientific community.

As Hitler emerges, many in the scientific community begin to turn on him in real life, and they begin castigating him.

There's a famous episode where the German Academy of Sciences is going to repudiate him, and Einstein shows up at that meeting to defend himself.

Heisenberg, if you know about him, very, very clever guy.

Very clever, and so he had the ability to do what most members of Congress have the ability to do, and that is play both sides at the same time.

And he would kind of play both sides.

But he did, he protected his reputation with the Reich and was critical of Einstein -- publicly critical.

Fascinating.

When the Allies go into Germany -- It's very important when we liberate Germany, very important to us to capture all of those scientists.

Capture them.

Why?

Number one, we wanted them working for us.

Number two, we didn't want them working for anyone else.

And so Heisenberg and others, they're captured and they're brought to England.

They're sequestered.

This is brilliant!

The decision's made to sequester them but put them all in the same house.

You know about this?

Put them all in the same house.

Which you would think, why would they do that?

Because we knew that they would start talking about their work in Nazi Germany and talking about science.

And so we recorded every single word.

And those transcripts are publicly available.

So you have Heisenberg talking to other German scientists about, "Well, you know, I didn't really work as hard as people think I did on that."

It's just extraordinary to read their original words as they're under arrest, pondering their future and reflecting on their past.

-Interesting.

Sir.

-Audience member: Thank you.

I've really enjoyed your comments and your personal interaction.

So as you're aware, Einstein, when he moved to Princeton, lived very far from the campus... -That's right.

-...in a remote part of the Herrontown Woods.

Was that for protection reasons?

-I don't know about that.

So, his house was at 112 Mercer Street -- Or Mercer Avenue.

Can't recall.

So that's where he lived.

He didn't teach at Princeton.

He taught at the IAS, Institute of Advanced Science.

So he had a house.

You can go there tomorrow.

You could see the house.

You just can't get in.

Unless you're a former member of Congress who requests it.

So I don't know about that particular location.

I do know this, and this fits into the plot of the book.

He loved to sail in Princeton.

He had a boat, 14-foot boat, called the Tenif.

Does anybody know -- Does anybody speak Yiddish?

You know what "tenif" means?

Loosely translated -- "piece of crap."

[ Laughter ] And that's what he called his boat -- the Tenif.

Why did he move to the North Fork of Long Island in the summer of 1939?

Because the Princeton Yacht Club banned him from sailing on Lake Carnegie in Princeton.

And why was that?

He sucked as a sailor.

[ Laughter ] And they got tired of having to go out and rescue him.

Literally.

So he's stuck now, Kevin.

He's like, "I want to sail.

Where can I go?"

And his secretary, Mrs.

Dukas, is trying to figure out, "Well, where is he gonna spend his vacation?"

This is real.

This is what I love about historic hinges.

They get an invitation for Einstein to open up the World's Fair in Flushing -- opening night, on April 30, 1939.

And now Dukas is like, "Okay.

I got to find a place where he can vacation that's close to the World's Fair.

'Cause he's going there, he's gonna give a speech, and then I got to get him out."

Sounds like one of your congressional staffers, right?

"Got a speech in Flushing.

I got to get him someplace where he can take his boat 'cause he's banned from Princeton."

And that is how Albert Einstein ended up living on Nassau Point, Long Island, in the summer and fall of 1939.

Completely exposed, by the way.

His house -- completely exposed to anybody who wanted to do him harm.

-Audience member: Thank you.

-Thank you.

-It's a good thing you didn't have a boat issue.

Your staff, instead of taking you to bookstores... -[ Laughing ] That's right.

Right.

-Sir.

-Audience member: Thank you both so much.

I want to pick up on this edge between history and fiction.

And every time, from the reader's perspective, I read historical fiction, I watch historical fiction films, and I think, "Now I think I know what happened, but the author has must have taken some liberties somewhere in here.

Where am I getting it wrong?"

And I wondered if you wanted to reflect at all from the writer's perspective about the places in the book where it's like, "I've got to do this.

It makes such a great story," but it's kind of... -Yes.

So first of all, the most gratifying thing I hear, including a couple comments today is, "I was reading your book and I knew, 'Oh, my God.

This never could have happened,' right?

It was so vivid, but I knew, 'This never could've happened.'

But then I googled it, and it turns out it did, and I'm shocked."

Like Adolf Hitler Street.

People believe I made that up.

No.

The government of Suffolk County, New York, did street signs that said "Adolf Hitler Street."

So I just love that historic veracity.

Second, my mentor in historic veracity was this author you may have heard of named Erik Larson.

[ Audience murmuring ] And my wife and I have become really good friends with him.

And so he mentored me on how to do the research and make sure that you have it right.

The best writer -- I hope he'll come to a book festival next year.

Best writer of historic narrative.

It's nonfiction but reads like fiction.

And third, I had to rely ultimately on my editor to tell me when I was just going too far in the direction of nonfiction.

So those three things together result, ultimately, I think, in a really good balance between what really happened but keep you moving 'cause you want to find out -- How does Einstein not get killed?

That's what I'm hoping you will do.

The antagonist is so psychotic and such a psychopath, you're like, "Well, how could he have missed?"

And that's what I hope carries you through the book.

-You really developed him, too.

-Thank you.

-Did you have an inspiration for that?

-I did not.

I enjoyed writing his character because he was -- Maybe because I'm a psychopath too -- I don't know.

But I just loved, like, writing about this complete psychopath because that gives you latitude.

You can do almost anything when you have somebody who is completely insane and willing to do anything to please the Führer.

-Yeah.

All right.

Our last question.

-Audience member: Awesome.

-Hello.

-My question also has to do with that line between fiction and fact.

And you said that your editor had to kind of rein you in when you were going too far in the direction of actual nonfiction.

But were there times where people said, "Hey, we got to pull you back from this farce that you're trying to go --" Was there ever a time you went too far in the other direction?

-There wasn't, and that's because I love history so much and historic veracity so much that I favored the history over the propulsion at times when I was writing it.

So there was that constant -- So I began to self-regulate after a while because I realized that, you know, I was just so enamored with history, I was just favoring it too much.

And that's where, like -- if you've written a book, you know -- the best friend you have in life is a good editor who you trust and who can say, "You're writing this book for commercial appeal, and you've got to keep the propulsion going."

And so I had an amazing editor named James Bock at Compass Rose.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

-Well, on that note, let's give a round of applause.

-Thank you.

And to Kevin Yoder!

Wouldn't Congress be nice if we could do more of this when we're actually in it?

-Write more books.

-Write more books.

Thank you, brother.

-All right.

Thank you all for coming.

-Thank you.

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