The novel follows the history of the operation and the lives of its protagonists—Reinhard Heydrich and his assassins
Jozef Gabčík and
Jan Kubiš. It is interlaced with the author's account of the process of researching and writing the book, his commentary about other literary and media treatments of the subject, and reflections about the extent to which the behavior of real people may of necessity be fictionalised in a historical novel. The novel's editor requested the cut of about twenty pages criticizing
Jonathan Littell's
Les Bienveillantes, another novel about the SS in World War II that was awarded the
Prix Goncourt in 2006.
The Millions published the "missing pages" in 2012. ==Title==