Who was Spinoza? This courageous figure of the 17th century, this brilliant philosopher whose work influenced global thought, and who at the age of twenty-three was excommunicated by the entire Jewish community of Amsterdam, as well as by his own family? What was his inner life like? What exactly was the attraction that he exerted on the "philosopher" of the Nazis two centuries later? Why did they loot his library but not burn his books? What was the "Spinoza problem" they referred to? These questions have preoccupied psychiatrist and novelist Irvin Yalom for many years. In his fascinating new novel, "The Spinoza Problem," he not only humanizes the philosopher but also reveals the origin and meaning of this powerful yet enigmatic obsession.

He focuses his gaze on Alfred Rosenberg, the Nazi ideologue who was primarily responsible for his party's intellectual program. Rosenberg is tormented by the intellectual legacy of his hero, Goethe, from the moment he discovers that the poet admired Spinoza: an excommunicated Jew, accused of heresy by his community, for whom Rosenberg feels both respect and repulsion.

With the parallel lives of Spinoza and Rosenberg, Yalom casts a penetrating look at the dangers lurking in the pursuit of wisdom and the calamities that befall anyone brave enough—or foolish enough—to attempt to live as a philosopher.