But Ethan finds another life behind the curtain that divides the past from the present--the story of a David who seduced, lied, bragged, and plundered his way to power. Ethan faces a dilemma. Which life should he write about?

Of Smiling Peace is a novel about the hazards of victory, told in the human terms of liberators, liberated and oppressors.

Men, and often women, are the theme of this novel. The story lies in the development of people, especially of Bing and Yates, under the intensified emotions of war.

This is a novel by renowned German writer Stefan Heym, first published in 1951, in which fact and fiction relating to the Communist revolution in Czechoslovakia are skillfully blended in a gripping tale of one of the enigmas of our times.

The story follows their respective oppositions through the rest of time: Ahasverus defiant through protest rooted in love and a faith in progress, and Lucifer rebellious by means of his biblically familiar methods.

Die Legende von Ahasver, dem ewigen Juden, der zu dauernder ruheloser Wanderschaft verurteilt wurde, weil er Christus auf seinem Kreuzweg nach Golgatha Rast und Erquickung verweigert hatte, erfährt in diesem Roman eine neue Ausdeutung.

According to the myth of the Wandering Jew, Ahasverus denied Christ a resting place while Christ was traveling to Golgotha.