Over a chessboard in 1916, soldier Thadeus Dreyer and train signalman Viktor Kretzschmar decide who of the two men will live out the war in safety using Kretzschmar's name, and who will go to the frontlines. In 1943, war hero Dreyer and his team of Nazi stand-in doubles vanish without a trace. In 1960, Adolf Eichmann, a master chess player, is arrested in Buenos Aires, extradited to Israel, and hanged. Years later, a dying Polish count casts doubt on Eichmann's identity, leaving behind a manuscript with clues that tie the three men together. A novel of imposture and revelation, Shadow Without a Name is a gripping parable of our century of chaos, where individual will is consumed by a cult of personality, and entire destinies hang on the outcome of a game of chance.