This month on Story Radio, Tabitha Potts and Martin Nathan talk to Marc S. Perlman about his debut novel, The Riddle of the Trees, published by Koehler Books on 10th March 2026.

The novel opens with two journeys that will soon collide. In Belarus, a physicist is murdered by a KGB agent; in America, Jack Miller boards a flight to Eastern Europe hoping to understand the rift that has divided his Holocaust-surviving father and grandfather for decades. Before too long, their stories intersect in a tense international conflict focused on the Polish and Belarusian borders which meet in the Belavezskaya Forest. It's a fast-paced espionage novel with a fascinating backdrop.

We talk to Marc about how he was inspired to write the novel while cycling through the Belavezskaya Forest from Poland into Belarus, about how he worked on the motivations for his main character and how he researched the spycraft used in the story.

Marc S. Perlman lives with his wife and son in New York City, where he works as a lawyer and does much of his writing after his son finally agrees to go to bed. A graduate of Bowdoin College and Cardozo Law School, he has a lifelong interest in history and has travelled extensively throughout Eastern Europe. The Riddle of the Trees is his first novel.

Produced by Martin Nathan.

Martin Nathan has worked as a labourer, showman, pancake chef, fire technician and a railway engineer. His short fiction has been published by Tangent Press, HCE and Grist and his poetry has appeared in Finished Creatures, Erbacce and Aesthetica. His novel, A Place of Safety, is published by Salt Publishing.

Story Radio CIC is supported by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and Allia Impact.

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