Today I’m delighted to be sharing an excerpt from Elisabeth Storrs’s recently released novel Fables & Lies: A World War II Novel Based on a True Story as part of a blog tour hosted by The Coffee Pot Book Club . Fables & Lies is set in Berlin during World War 2 and is also available as an audiobook narrated by Lucy Tregear.

Blurb

Under a brutal regime, what price must be paid to preserve truth, treasure and love in a world built on lies?

WWII Berlin. Freyja Bremer, a patriotic museum assistant, marries Kaspar Voigt, an ambitious SS scholar, to protect her father. Yet she is unaware her husband is instrumental in Himmler’s twisted quest for Aryan supremacy.

As she strives to safeguard the priceless Priam’s Treasure from air raids, Freyja falls in love with Darien Lessing, an archaeologist who exposes the moral decay beneath the Regime’s myths. Her awakening drives her into perilous resistance — aiding a Jewish doctor and his wife, Darien’s sister — while uncovering Kaspar’s role in the SS’s darkest programs, which subvert history to justify invasion, abduction and murder.

As Berlin collapses into chaos and bloodshed, Freyja, caught between duty, deception and desire, must risk everything to preserve truth in a world built on lies.

A heartbreaking yet triumphant love story, Fables & Lies shines light on lesser-known aspects of the Nazi Regime. It gives voice to the complex moral struggles of German women, the forgotten resistance of Gentiles married to Jews, the dangers of contested history, the evils of Himmler’s racial studies program and the unsung bravery of German museum curators who saved their nation’s treasures.

Perfect for readers of Kelly Rimmer, Anthony Doer and Laura Morelli.

Excerpt

Berlin, Sunday, 27 August 1939

The Adlon’s lobby was vast, with vaulted ornamental ceilings and a gigantic chandelier. The bannisters of the sweeping staircase were inset with bronze reliefs. Potted palms and Persian rugs added an exotic atmosphere. Well-heeled people bustled past, greeting friends, or headed for the reception desk. Freyja felt like an impostor. The Silesian girl masquerading as a society woman.

Voigt was sitting on a leather Chesterfield sofa next to a splendid arrangement of flowers. With a salute, and curt bow of the head, he welcomed her, his teeth very white against his tan. ‘You look charming. That blue brings out your eyes.’

She blushed at the compliment.

As the waiter led them to their table, she felt overwhelmed by the restaurant’s sophisticated decor, with marbled walls, cameo medallions and an arched gilded mirror. A pianist played a tune softly in the corner on a Baby Grand.

The waiter flicked Freyja’s napkin open and laid it across her lap. She removed her gloves and clipped them to her handbag, scanning the array of silverware and crystal glasses on the starched damask tablecloth. She would have to follow Voigt’s lead in which ones to use. The menu was unmarked by prices. She was relieved it was in German. ‘I thought the menu would be in French,’ she ventured.

He smiled. ‘It is haute cuisine, but the hotel uses patriotic language since the Führer took power.’ He summoned the waiter. ‘Two Krabbensalat followed by Doppellendensteak.’

She was in awe of his choices, too nervous to be offended he’d ordered for her. She’d never tasted shrimp or fine beef. She smoothed her hair. ‘You’re very formal, asking my father’s consent.’

‘I’m old-fashioned. And I was taught to respect veterans.’ He drew some photos from his inside coat pocket, pushing aside the cruet stand and spreading them on the table. ‘You were interested in Tibet. I thought you might like to see these.’

She scanned the foreign faces in the pictures: an old man drinking tea beside a tent of fur pelts, shaven-headed monks and a beggar with two arms missing. Their faces were weather-beaten, their eyes slanted, long hair drawn back, and with broad, flat cheekbones. She spotted a shaggy blond-haired man clasping the chin of a young woman. He was using a sliding compass to measure the distance between her forehead and cheek. ‘Who’s he?’

‘SS Obersturmführer Bruno Beger. A Racial Studies genius. The mother agreed to be examined after he dosed her sick baby. Most locals accepted first aid from us. I pulled quite a few rotten teeth. We gained their trust that way.’

He chose a snapshot of a tall man dressed in brocade robes, armed with an ancient flintlock and a curved sword in a jewel-encrusted scabbard. ‘This man is a Tibetan aristocrat,’ he said, comparing him to the peasants whom he considered had a jarring blend of blood: half Indo-Germanic, half Asian Mongoloid. ‘In contrast, the lord was taller, his skin lighter, his features finer. He even had reddish tinges in his black hair and grey-blue eyes. Finding him gave us confidence we’d found proof the primordial Aryan overlords once reached the Roof of the World.’

The waiter arrived with the wine, which Voigt duly tasted then signalled it could be served. Freyja was surprised. She thought Voigt, like the Führer, would disapprove of women drinking alcohol.

‘Some wine for a special occasion.’ He clinked his glass against hers. ‘Prost!’

‘Prost,’ she murmured, sipping her first taste of French wine. The flavour burst within her mouth. She sipped some more. Her nerves settled. ‘You conducted measurements with Beger?’

‘We were looking for certain characteristics based on a simple mathematical formula called the Cephalic Index. Some of the Tibetan lords were within the same range as Germans and Scandinavians.’

Fables & Lies is available at via this Universal Buy Link

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Praise for Fables & Lies

“A heartrending story of a young woman caught in the machinations of the Third Reich and in the web of a regime-compliant family. The novel is meticulously researched and emotionally resonant, sure to delight readers who love a hearty feast of history in their fiction.” ~ Olivia Hawker, bestselling author of The Ragged Edge of Night

“A powerful and heartbreaking story set in war-torn Berlin, FABLES & LIES charts the slow dawning horror of a young woman as she realises all she has been taught about Hitler and the Third Reich is a lie. Impeccably researched and sensitively rendered, Elisabeth Storrs has shone a light on little-known aspects of life in Germany under the Nazi regime.” ~ Kate Forsyth, bestselling author of Bitter Greens

“Written from the little explored German viewpoint, FABLES & LIES is a gripping account of the quest to save the world’s great antiquities during WW2 and an ode to those women and men who risked all for freedom. A beautifully written novel. I’ve never read anything like it.” ~ Nicole Alexander, author of The Limestone Road

“Elisabeth Storrs has indeed broken the mould by writing ‘from the other side’. Evocative, detailed and heart-rending as the heroine journeys through disillusion and danger in the Third Reich.” ~ Alison Morton, author ofthe Roma Nova series

“A chilling and meticulously researched journey into the shadow world of the Ahnenerbe. Blending historical rigor with gripping fiction, FABLES & LIES reminds us of the devastating consequences when history is twisted to serve power.” ~ Leah Kaminsky, author of The Hollow Bones

Elisabeth Storrs

Elisabeth Storrs has a great love for history and myths. She is the award-winning author of A Tale of Ancient Rome trilogy which was endorsed by Ursula Le Guin, Kate Quinn and Ben Kane.

Now her obsession lies with Trojan treasure and twisted Germanic prehistory in her new release, Fables & Lies: A World War II Novel.

Elisabeth is also the founder of the Historical Novel Society Australasia and the $155,000 ARA Historical Novel Prize. She lives in Sydney with her husband in a house surrounded by jacarandas.

For more information about Elisabeth and her books click on the links below
 Website • Twitter / X • Instagram • Facebook
Pinterest • BookBub • TikTok • Goodreads
Amazon Author Page 

More information on the Coffee Pot Book Club and other works of quality historical fiction can be found on  X / Twitter and Instagram.

Book Title: Fables & Lies: A World War II Novel Based on a True Story
Author Name: Elisabeth Storrs
Publication Date: 28 April 2026
Audiobook Narrator: Lucy Tregear
Publisher: The Book Guild (Digital and Paperback)
Bolinda Audio (Audio)
Pages: 584 pages