The Doubled Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, appearing the end of March

My book, The Doubled Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, will appear in print at the end of March. This book focuses on women in the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. As I did my research, even I was surprised at the extent to which women were part of his innermost circle. Dialogue with, concerns for, and tensions with women helped formed the theology of this man for whom the theological and the personal could not be more closely intertwined. 

A short  review of the book appeared in Publishers Weekly. While the finished book has photos (!), including the first-ever published photo of Elisabeth Zinn, sometimes proposed as Bonhoeffer's first fiancee, the uncorrected page proofs sent to the reviewer did not. I have copied the review below. A $9.99 kindle version of the book will be available, I am told, a few weeks after the release of the admittedly expensive print version. And while I love the play on the Star Trek opening in the first line, I wouldn't  say "many" :) have gone here before. The review follows:

PW reviewer and contributor Reynolds ambitiously treads where many have gone before with this biography of 20th-century German theologian Bonhoeffer, whose involvement in anti-Nazi resistance led to his execution in April 1945, three short weeks before Adolf Hitler committed suicide as the Third Reich collapsed. Reynolds focuses on the women in Bonhoeffer's life, who were many and influential; Bonhoeffer had a female twin, a fiancée, and a patron. He also had a close male friend, Eberhard Bethge, who became Bonhoeffer's definitive biographer. Using letters, photos, and published writings, Reynolds studies the social ecology of her subject, placing him in context to show whom he loved and how those relationships mattered. She doesn't argue for a romantic or sexual relationship between Bonhoeffer and Bethge, but makes a convincing case that their special friendship fit no conventional category. Her study also implicitly calls attention to the job and presumptions of any biographer. Given the complexity of the social network in which she locates Bonhoeffer, a list of figures in his life would have been helpful, as would photographs she refers to that are not included. The field of Bonhoeffer studies will benefit from this balanced correction to popular hagiography.

Working on this book was both an adventure and a labor of love as I had the opportunity to delve deeply into Bonhoeffer's life and times. Because of the complexity of his life, a Bonhoeffer biography is not for the faint of heart, but I believe it a testament to the man that I still like and admire him greatly after all the time we have spent together.