Before turning to fiction, Brendan McNally worked as a defense journalist, first at the Pentagon and later in Prague, where he investigated the Eastern European arms trade. His investigative work included uncovering the Czech government's role in helping supply nuclear technology to Iran for the Prague Post and Iraqi deployment of Chemical Weapons for the New York Times. Brendan currently writes feature and news stories for The New Yorker, Wired, Smithsonian Air & Space, The Rotarian, D Magazine, Telematics Update, Defense Media Network, and Weider History Group. He lives in Dallas, Texas, with his wife and daughter.

In their youth, Manni and Franzi, together with their brothers, Ziggy and Sebastian, captured Germany's collective imagination as the Flying Magical Loerber Brothers -- one of the most popular vaudeville acts of the old Weimar days. The ensuing years have, however, found the Jewish brothers estranged and ensconced in various occupations as the war is drawing near its end and a German surrender is imminent. Manni is traveling through the Ruhr Valley with Albert Speer, who is intent on subverting Hitler's apocalyptic plan to destroy the German industrial heartland before the Allies arrive; Franzi has become inextricably attached to Heinrich Himmler's entourage as astrologer and masseur; and Ziggy and Sebastian have each been employed in pursuits that threaten to compromise irrevocably their own safety and ideologies.Now, with the Russian noose tightening around Berlin and the remnants of the Nazi government fleeing north to Flensburg, the Loerber brothers are unexpectedly reunited. As Himmler and Speer vie to become the next Fuhrer, deluded into believing they can strike a bargain with Eisenhower and escape their criminal fates, the Loerbers must employ all their talents -- and whatever magic they possess -- to rescue themselves and one another.Deftly written and darkly funny, "Germania" is an astounding adventure tale -- with subplots involving a hidden cache of Nazi gold, Hitler's miracle U-boats, and Speer's secret plan to live out his days hunting walrus in Greenland -- and a remarkably imaginative novel from a gifted new writing talent.