100. The Exception by Christian Jungersen

Office politics run amok in this brilliant novel by Danish author Jungersen. Iben and Malene have been best friends for years, and also happen to work together in the Danish Center for Information on Genocide. The two women are also friendly with their office secretary, Camilla, but none of the three women get along with the Center’s librarian, emotional and paranoid Anne-Lise. When Iben and Malene receive death threats by email that have distinctive Nazi overtones to them, the Center thinks that Serbian war criminal Mirko Zigic could be behind them. However, as the women question each other and work more closely together in an emotionally heated environment, the women slowly begin to believe Anne-Lise sent the threats. Tensions quickly escalate and soon the women who study and report on the world’s most evil crimes turn into paranoid, plotting bullies who will stop at nothing to find out who the email sender is.

What impressed me the most about this ambitious novel is the depth of research that Jungersen put into this novel about genocide. From the concentration camps of Nazi Germany, to the killings in Bosnia and the rampant genocide in Africa, facts are interspersed throughout the novel. This is a complex novel that uses tension and growing paranoia to show how easy it is for everyday people to commit acts of evil. A best-seller in Europe, I hope more people find out about this fantastic novel.