Longlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize In February 1940, the Nazis established what would become the second - largest Jewish ghetto in the Polish city of L dz. Its chosen leader: Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski, a sixty - three - year - old Jewish businessman and orphanage director - and the elusive, authoritarian power sustaining the ghetto's very existence. From one of Sweden's most critically acclaimed and bestselling authors, <i>The Emperor of Lies</i> chronicles the tale of Rumkowski's monarchical rule over a quarter - million Jews for the next four years. Driven by a titanic ambition, he sought to transform the ghetto into a productive industrial complex and strove to make it - and himself - indispensable to the Nazi regime. Drawing on the detailed records of life in the L dz ghetto, Steve Sem - Sandberg captures the full panorama of human resilience and probes deeply into the nature of evil. He asks the most difficult questions: Was Rumkowski a ruthless opportunist, an accessory to the Nazi regime driven by a lust for power? Or was he a pragmatic strategist who managed to save Jewish lives through his collaboration policies? Winner of the August Prize, Sweden's most important literary award, <i>The Emperor of Lies</i> is a haunting, profoundly challenging novel.