March the Ninth

Eugen Reichenbach, a 35 year old doctor, born and brought up in Austria, fled with his family to America before WWII erupted. Although he has a comfortable life and a successful career at the Yale School of Medicine, his double identity makes him restless and uneasy. His European roots, which he tries to forget and bury, make him feel forlorn. After the death of his mother he travels to Triest with the World Universities Relief Organization; there he lands a bureaucratic and unproductive job as an adviser for Health and Nutritional Co-ordination. But in a city torn between Italy and Tito's republic, far from being peaceful or content with the war settlement, the idleness of his new existence strikes him as unsatisfying and inadequate. An unexpected meeting with his childhood friend, Kurt Wenzel, who re-awakens Eugen's youthful idealism, leads to a series of events which will change his tranquil existence. March the Ninth, first published in 1957, explores the problems of identity, loyalty and guilt that arise in a post-war reality, where integrity and morals are difficult to define.