The Devil's Alternative

The Devil's Alternative is a novel by Frederick Forsyth first published in 1979. It was his fourth full-length fictional novel and marked a new direction in his work, setting the story several years in the future rather than in the recent past.

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The story opens with the discovery of a castaway by an Italian sea captain. Recovering in hospital in Trabazon, Turkey, the man is visited by an Anglo-Ukranian shipping, Andrew Drake. The castaway, Miroslav Kaminsky, is a Ukranian nationalist who escaped from Lvov after he was betrayed to the KGB. Drake, born Andryi Drach, convinces Kaminsky that they both share the same ideal, that of striking a single blow against the Soviet Union. Kaminsky tells Drake about Lev Mishkin and David Lazareff, two Jewish Ukranian nationalists who may be able to help him.

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