Status
Available
Call number
Collections
Publication
Heyne (1994), Edition: 2., 378 pages
Description
Fatherland is set in an alternative world where Hitler has won the Second World War. It is April 1964 and one week before Hitler's 75th birthday. Xavier March, a detective of the Kriminalpolizei, is called out to investigate the discovery of a dead body in a lake near Berlin's most prestigious suburb. As March discovers the identity of the body, he uncovers signs of a conspiracy that could go to the very top of the German Reich. And, with the Gestapo just one step behind, March, together with an American journalist, is caught up in a race to discover and reveal the truth -- a truth that has already killed, a truth that could topple governments, a truth that will change history.
User reviews
LibraryThing member break
My grandmother was a Holocaust survivor who returned, (barely) alive from Auschwitz to Hungary. After the war she became a journalist. As such she read a lot of foreign magazines and brought some home too. My recollection is that I first heard from her about Robert Harris' strong>Fatherland when
It was pretty hard on me. The plot starts it relatively easy on my nerves as it seems to be a murder investigation. I don't want to spoil you the suspense as the background of the murders unfold, so won't tell you what turns the book takes. Let me just say that it does have a grander theme and it is not really about art theft.
It is gut wrenching for anybody but Holocaust deniers. The book gives an insight on how every day Germans could have lived with the knowledge of what was happening to the Jews. They said to themselves that they didn't know. That's possible that they didn't now the details, but (from page 352)
"Of course you knew! You knew every time someone made a joke about 'going East', every time you heard a mother tell her children to behave or they'd go up the chimney. We knew when we moved into their houses, when we took over their property, their jobs. We knew but we didn't have the facts."
The book was all about plausible deniability. The murder victims', Hitler's, the Gestapo officers', the collaborators'. But you can't build a lasting society, where everybody is trying to cover their back. Or as the book puts it (page 329):
"You can't build on a mass grave. Human beings are better than that--they have to better than that--I do believe it--don't you?
He did not reply."
There was one person, the detective, who was trying to do his work and even had a conscience, who was not trying to cover things up. He mused early on (page 209)
"What do you do," he said, "if you devote your life to discovering criminals, and it gradually occurs to you that he real criminals are the people you work for? What do you do when everyone tells you not to worry, you can't do anything about it, it was a long time ago?"
She was looking at hi m I a different way "I suppose you go crazy."
"Or worse. Sane."
The life (and deaths) envisioned by Harris were eerily realistic. He did his homework and researched the topic extensively. I appreciated his note at the end of the book, where he clarified what was fiction and what was not. The later included everything till 1942, the major (and most of the minor) historical figures and most of the documents quoted in the book. That put my mind at ease as I was wondering exactly about how much of it was the work of his imagination. The plot itself of course was all made up, but the driving forces and the settings were not.
If you want to get a sense of how the world, or at least Berlin, would have turned out and looked like in the mid 1960s I recommend this book. The story is engaging, the details of a mostly peacetime Nazi Germany are convincing and what you can read between the lines is what must have been in the back of the mind of the people then.
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the book came out in 1992. She must have read about it in Stern or Spiegel, both German magazines. I can clearly visualize the pile of these magazines she kept in a small room of their apartment. I don't have a clear memory though of the conversation, but I do remember the high level of anxiety the book caused by depicting an alternative history where the Nazis won WWII. I don't think she ever read it, it would have been too much.It was pretty hard on me. The plot starts it relatively easy on my nerves as it seems to be a murder investigation. I don't want to spoil you the suspense as the background of the murders unfold, so won't tell you what turns the book takes. Let me just say that it does have a grander theme and it is not really about art theft.
It is gut wrenching for anybody but Holocaust deniers. The book gives an insight on how every day Germans could have lived with the knowledge of what was happening to the Jews. They said to themselves that they didn't know. That's possible that they didn't now the details, but (from page 352)
"Of course you knew! You knew every time someone made a joke about 'going East', every time you heard a mother tell her children to behave or they'd go up the chimney. We knew when we moved into their houses, when we took over their property, their jobs. We knew but we didn't have the facts."
The book was all about plausible deniability. The murder victims', Hitler's, the Gestapo officers', the collaborators'. But you can't build a lasting society, where everybody is trying to cover their back. Or as the book puts it (page 329):
"You can't build on a mass grave. Human beings are better than that--they have to better than that--I do believe it--don't you?
He did not reply."
There was one person, the detective, who was trying to do his work and even had a conscience, who was not trying to cover things up. He mused early on (page 209)
"What do you do," he said, "if you devote your life to discovering criminals, and it gradually occurs to you that he real criminals are the people you work for? What do you do when everyone tells you not to worry, you can't do anything about it, it was a long time ago?"
She was looking at hi m I a different way "I suppose you go crazy."
"Or worse. Sane."
The life (and deaths) envisioned by Harris were eerily realistic. He did his homework and researched the topic extensively. I appreciated his note at the end of the book, where he clarified what was fiction and what was not. The later included everything till 1942, the major (and most of the minor) historical figures and most of the documents quoted in the book. That put my mind at ease as I was wondering exactly about how much of it was the work of his imagination. The plot itself of course was all made up, but the driving forces and the settings were not.
If you want to get a sense of how the world, or at least Berlin, would have turned out and looked like in the mid 1960s I recommend this book. The story is engaging, the details of a mostly peacetime Nazi Germany are convincing and what you can read between the lines is what must have been in the back of the mind of the people then.
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LibraryThing member LynnB
What if Germany had won WW2? This is the question that attracted me to this book, so I was disappointed. The story doesn't have enough details about an alternative history as I was seeking -- it's more of a standard detective novel, with the holocaust as the crime being investigated/uncovered in
Getting past my search for a more thoughtful alternative history, the book as a detective novel works really well. It's a real page-turner with enough action to keep the reader interested, and enough character development to make you care not only about the plot, but about the "people" you've come to know.
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1964. Getting past my search for a more thoughtful alternative history, the book as a detective novel works really well. It's a real page-turner with enough action to keep the reader interested, and enough character development to make you care not only about the plot, but about the "people" you've come to know.
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LibraryThing member dougwood57
Robert Harris's debut novel 'Fatherland' centers around an alternate history. Nazi Germany won the war, it's 1964 and the country is about to celebrate Hitler's 75th birthday. President Kennedy is coming for a visit - but dead bodies begin to show up in Berlin. Not just any old bodies either, but
Kriminalpolizei detective Xavier March begins to unravel the murders and the secret they are meant to hide. But March's life is a shambles; his thorughly indoctrinated son hates March for being an 'asocial' who has little interest in conforming and supporting the 'normal' activities of the society that has resulted from 30 years of Nazi rule.
While I'm not a big fan of alternate histories (there's so much real history to investigate), I am a fan of Robert Harris and the slightly disturbing, definitely enjoyable page-turner he unwinds in the Fatherland.
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high-level party members with intimate knowledge of the regime's biggest secret, perhaps the darkest secret of all time. Kriminalpolizei detective Xavier March begins to unravel the murders and the secret they are meant to hide. But March's life is a shambles; his thorughly indoctrinated son hates March for being an 'asocial' who has little interest in conforming and supporting the 'normal' activities of the society that has resulted from 30 years of Nazi rule.
While I'm not a big fan of alternate histories (there's so much real history to investigate), I am a fan of Robert Harris and the slightly disturbing, definitely enjoyable page-turner he unwinds in the Fatherland.
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LibraryThing member Ken-Me-Old-Mate
This is a very good book in more ways than one.
It is well written, the story hums along, the characters are believable and it all hangs together really well.
We have all read good books. A good tale is set in a time and place and the telling is almost magical and we are transported. The story
But there is another kind of good book. It is one that does all of the above but it also has something or things in it that force you to reflect on your own life and where you live and what it is really like to live there.
Having lived in several countries I am fully aware that each country has a story about itself that it teaches its children and tells itself again and again as if that story were really true. I have seen that most countries deny the worst things about themselves. Sometimes they also deny the most obvious things about themselves.
So, the setting for this story is that the war was won by the Nazis and then progress that world to 1964 and that is where and when this story is happening. It is just coming up to Adolf Hitler's 75th Birthday celebrations in the New Germany, where life is so good and yet so many people are unhappy and afraid, where the war in the East is almost won and yet continues still after 20 years or more.
The immersion into this fictitious world is done so subtly that before you know it you can see this place as if you were in the theatre watching Blade Runner. The curious and fully believable thing about this “ideal” world is that it is so similar to the old Soviet Union with its paranoia, repression, violence, and internal spying. It is also very reminiscent of what has happened to the US since the Soviet Union folded.
The word 'dystopian' springs to mind but it is much more than that. It is like all those features of those oppressive regimes and countries are identical and wherever you are living now if it is not dystopian than it is only just below the surface, waiting. Look what has happened to the US since 9-11. Who could have imagined so much freedom taken away, so much paranoia introduced, so much liberty curtailed in the land that represented freedom to just about everyone who never had it?
That kind of cynicism and irony is the flavour of this book. At the heart of it all it is a hard-bitten crime story and a bloody good one at that. The setting is the cream on the cake. It is also chilling if you know that the reported comments of Joe Kennedy on the Jewish Question are factual and not fiction.
On that subject have you ever pondered this question: Given that the English and the US had enough spies on the ground to know that the Germans were shipping the Jews eastwards on trains to extermination camps, why weren’t the railheads bombed to stop this? I have thought about this for many years and Joe Kennedy’s comments and their implication just add to the chill.
This is probably the best book I have read in ages.
It is well written, the story hums along, the characters are believable and it all hangs together really well.
We have all read good books. A good tale is set in a time and place and the telling is almost magical and we are transported. The story
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completes and we feel good having read it, or the story ends badly and we are glad for having read it. That is a good book.But there is another kind of good book. It is one that does all of the above but it also has something or things in it that force you to reflect on your own life and where you live and what it is really like to live there.
Having lived in several countries I am fully aware that each country has a story about itself that it teaches its children and tells itself again and again as if that story were really true. I have seen that most countries deny the worst things about themselves. Sometimes they also deny the most obvious things about themselves.
So, the setting for this story is that the war was won by the Nazis and then progress that world to 1964 and that is where and when this story is happening. It is just coming up to Adolf Hitler's 75th Birthday celebrations in the New Germany, where life is so good and yet so many people are unhappy and afraid, where the war in the East is almost won and yet continues still after 20 years or more.
The immersion into this fictitious world is done so subtly that before you know it you can see this place as if you were in the theatre watching Blade Runner. The curious and fully believable thing about this “ideal” world is that it is so similar to the old Soviet Union with its paranoia, repression, violence, and internal spying. It is also very reminiscent of what has happened to the US since the Soviet Union folded.
The word 'dystopian' springs to mind but it is much more than that. It is like all those features of those oppressive regimes and countries are identical and wherever you are living now if it is not dystopian than it is only just below the surface, waiting. Look what has happened to the US since 9-11. Who could have imagined so much freedom taken away, so much paranoia introduced, so much liberty curtailed in the land that represented freedom to just about everyone who never had it?
That kind of cynicism and irony is the flavour of this book. At the heart of it all it is a hard-bitten crime story and a bloody good one at that. The setting is the cream on the cake. It is also chilling if you know that the reported comments of Joe Kennedy on the Jewish Question are factual and not fiction.
On that subject have you ever pondered this question: Given that the English and the US had enough spies on the ground to know that the Germans were shipping the Jews eastwards on trains to extermination camps, why weren’t the railheads bombed to stop this? I have thought about this for many years and Joe Kennedy’s comments and their implication just add to the chill.
This is probably the best book I have read in ages.
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LibraryThing member ALincolnNut
Set in Berlin in 1964, Robert Harris' debut novel, "Fatherland," imagines an alternate history where the D-Day invasion failed. Although Germany remains mired in an unending war with the Russians, there is an uneasy peace between Germany and the United States. Also, Hitler's grand plans for a
The secret behind two recent murders of high-ranking German officials, though, threatens the grand design and the emerging détente between Germany and the United States. Xavier March, a detective with more interest in his work than in Nazi politics, investigates the suspicious death of an old man who washes up on a riverbank. When the deceased victim turns out to be a former high-ranking Nazi official, March is confronted with both an inexplicable crime and a heavy-handed government cover up.
Despite these obstacles, March continues his investigation with the help of Charlotte Maguire, a young American journalist with family ties to prewar Germany. Together, they slowly unravel the secret that must be protected at all costs, even murder.
Combining well-documented German actions during the war with many of the promises and dreams offered in Nazi propaganda, Harris constructs a plausible alternate reality dominated by a Nazi police state that seems more terrifying than even the Soviet Union under Stalin. Interestingly, though, he also suggests through subtext that certain Nazi policies could ultimately have destroyed the Third Reich from within. The historical research and analysis is coupled with a twisting, well-paced plot that features a couple of unconventional turns.
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modern German Empire continue to take shape, through an unquestioned dominance of Europe and displayed in the breathtaking construction of a modern Berlin featuring buildings unparalleled in history.The secret behind two recent murders of high-ranking German officials, though, threatens the grand design and the emerging détente between Germany and the United States. Xavier March, a detective with more interest in his work than in Nazi politics, investigates the suspicious death of an old man who washes up on a riverbank. When the deceased victim turns out to be a former high-ranking Nazi official, March is confronted with both an inexplicable crime and a heavy-handed government cover up.
Despite these obstacles, March continues his investigation with the help of Charlotte Maguire, a young American journalist with family ties to prewar Germany. Together, they slowly unravel the secret that must be protected at all costs, even murder.
Combining well-documented German actions during the war with many of the promises and dreams offered in Nazi propaganda, Harris constructs a plausible alternate reality dominated by a Nazi police state that seems more terrifying than even the Soviet Union under Stalin. Interestingly, though, he also suggests through subtext that certain Nazi policies could ultimately have destroyed the Third Reich from within. The historical research and analysis is coupled with a twisting, well-paced plot that features a couple of unconventional turns.
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LibraryThing member soylentgreen23
What would have happened if the Germans had won? What would be the long-term repurcussions? Would the Reich have continued pushing West, or would they have settled for the increased leibensraum they claimed to have been after?
Here, Harris suggests possible answers to these questions, with a vivid
Here, Harris suggests possible answers to these questions, with a vivid
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portrayal of what life would be like in the thousand-year reich. At its heart, this is a detective story, and this is the story that drives the reader deeper and deeper into the heart of the beast. The secret, when it is revealed, is not surprising - we already know it - but what is shocking is the fact that we might never have known. Show Less
LibraryThing member cajela
Creepy and clever, this detective novel is set in an alternative world in which Hitler won, and is about to celebrate his 75th birthday. Our hero is a Berlin policeman, called in to investigate a murder of a rich old former party official. Although a nazi, because who isn't in this reality, he's
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basically a decent man. We slowly find out more about the world (King Edward and Queen Wallis?) and about the murder and about both real and alternate history. Wheels within wheels - just when you think you understand it, there's another twist. And did I mention that it is deeply, deeply creepy? Show Less
LibraryThing member drexler-spiele
Very interesting read. Alternative history based on a real historic data. Very dark and creepy. One of the best in this genre.
LibraryThing member kdworkin
Interesting read -- thank God things didn't turn out this way!
LibraryThing member furriebarry
Pretty much a bog standard thriller plot (not a million miles from The Da Vinci Code) but set in Germany 1964 which is still ruled by Hitler. Well written for the genre, the setting and themes put it a notch above average.
LibraryThing member miketheriley
A reasonable movie with Rutger Hauer, but the book had a good pace in a nazi dominated europe. One of the best examples of the Alternate history genre. Many seem to go off the rails with long explanations and many characters, not so ere. Tightly written
LibraryThing member Borg-mx5
An interesting world for a mystery to take place. Germany had won World War II. Hitler had built his new Europe. Now in 1964, President Joseph P. Kennedy will come to Berlin and negotiate Detente with the 75 year old Furher. The main character is a Berlin detective attempting to solve a murder in
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the strange world. I enjoyed this book very much. Show Less
LibraryThing member patrickdjoyce
Skillfully written thriller that succeeds in spite of the facts that the detective-protagonist we sympathize with is a Nazi officer - in an alternate history that takes place after Germany wins WWII - and the final discovery that resolves the mystery ends up being something with which we are
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already painfully familiar. Show Less
LibraryThing member alexrichman
Starts out as a quirky yet unspectacular alternative history thriller, but halfway through heads in a far more interesting direction. The last few chapters are gripping.
LibraryThing member michaeldwebb
I read this partly because of the way Nick Hornby recommended it in Polysyllabic Spree, and partly because the premise, that the Nazis won the second world war, seemed interest.
In reality though, the premise wasn't really explored much, and it was just a fairly subdued chase thriller. Not really my
In reality though, the premise wasn't really explored much, and it was just a fairly subdued chase thriller. Not really my
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cup of tea. Show Less
LibraryThing member kcstewart
It took a few chapters before I really got into this book, but as the story evolved I found it hard to out down. Set in the 1960s after Hitler won the war, the alternative take on history is intriguing. Essentially its a detective novel - the protagonist March trying to figure out the truth behind
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a series of murders. If you like suspense, this is one for you. Show Less
LibraryThing member DHealy
Listened to the audio play. Fascinating!
LibraryThing member SilverThistle
I thought Fatherland was such a good read! Alternate history intrigues me and I think this particular point in history is one of the most speculated about when it comes to 'what if's'.
To begin with I found it hard to lose myself in the alternate reality because my mind kept trying to correct what I
Some might say the characters are a bit hackneyed; loner cop, dumped by his wife for overworking, estranged from his kid, meets much younger feisty heroine who he hooks up with no problem, antagonist is a bad bully with no redeeming features....and, and, and. You get the idea. But really, why fix it if it isn't broken? All those very things and more are what make this book great. The alternate ending to WWII means we're taken out of our comfort zone and those other constants give us something familiar to work with.
That's where the familiarity ends though, the story itself is slick, well constructed and highly enjoyable but imaginative use of 'what if' takes us to places that I for one am glad I'll never see. In this fantasy regime, things are grim. There's everything to hope for and nothing to lose.
I gave this to my dad to read and he loved it too. He lived through things the first time around and says Robert Harris has put into words everything he feared at the time and he's glad he only had to read about it.... and not live it.
To begin with I found it hard to lose myself in the alternate reality because my mind kept trying to correct what I
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was reading and saying 'No, no, no, that's now how it was/is'. But several chapters in and I was sucked into the pages and loving it.Some might say the characters are a bit hackneyed; loner cop, dumped by his wife for overworking, estranged from his kid, meets much younger feisty heroine who he hooks up with no problem, antagonist is a bad bully with no redeeming features....and, and, and. You get the idea. But really, why fix it if it isn't broken? All those very things and more are what make this book great. The alternate ending to WWII means we're taken out of our comfort zone and those other constants give us something familiar to work with.
That's where the familiarity ends though, the story itself is slick, well constructed and highly enjoyable but imaginative use of 'what if' takes us to places that I for one am glad I'll never see. In this fantasy regime, things are grim. There's everything to hope for and nothing to lose.
I gave this to my dad to read and he loved it too. He lived through things the first time around and says Robert Harris has put into words everything he feared at the time and he's glad he only had to read about it.... and not live it.
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LibraryThing member RBeffa
This is a murder mystery/thriller set in Berlin, in an alternative history in which Germany prevailed in WW2. The book is quite slim on background on how we have the Germans winning and how we got to 1964. The entire story is told over a six or seven day period in April 1964 as Germany is about to
I need to be a little spoilery - the real mystery being uncovered here is not the deaths of two prominent old party members, and a missing third, but the "final solution", the holocaust. When I realized that I said to myself, "oh, come on". Maybe this is just MY naïveté. The Nazis have kept the extermination of the jews and undesireables a secret for 20 years, not only from the German people, but the world? I honestly found it hard to swallow that the German people were unaware and continued to be unaware. However, Harris did finally sway me into thinking it was possible to have kept it hidden. There is a poignant moment in the book, when our protaganist Xavier March, Sturmbannführer March, a police detective thinks to himself:
"How odd it is .... to live your life in ignorance of the past, of your world, yourself. Yet how easy to do it! You go along from day to day, down paths other people prepare for you, never raising your head - enfolded in their logic, from swaddling clothers to shroud. It's a kind of fear."
Harris does manage pretty well to give the reader a sense of paranoia and creepiness to live within the fascist state of Germany. It was really getting to me. It is certainly not a world one would choose to live in. I found myself a little unsatisfied with the ending, although the events leading up to it were exciting.
This ended up being a fairly interesting, "something different" read.
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celebrate Hitler's 75th birthday. The story didn't really pull me in at first. In fact, all the "Herr Sturmbannführer" stuff was laid on rather thick - I realize to emphasize the omnipresent paramilitary police state culture in the novel - but it was a lot of it. Slowly, though, my interest grew and about 1/4 way in I was getting more interested, and moreso soon after with the addition of some later arriving characters. So, some perseverance by this reader paid off. This did turn into a page turner for me at the end, as the book seemed to get better, and I was interested enough to see it through. I need to be a little spoilery - the real mystery being uncovered here is not the deaths of two prominent old party members, and a missing third, but the "final solution", the holocaust. When I realized that I said to myself, "oh, come on". Maybe this is just MY naïveté. The Nazis have kept the extermination of the jews and undesireables a secret for 20 years, not only from the German people, but the world? I honestly found it hard to swallow that the German people were unaware and continued to be unaware. However, Harris did finally sway me into thinking it was possible to have kept it hidden. There is a poignant moment in the book, when our protaganist Xavier March, Sturmbannführer March, a police detective thinks to himself:
"How odd it is .... to live your life in ignorance of the past, of your world, yourself. Yet how easy to do it! You go along from day to day, down paths other people prepare for you, never raising your head - enfolded in their logic, from swaddling clothers to shroud. It's a kind of fear."
Harris does manage pretty well to give the reader a sense of paranoia and creepiness to live within the fascist state of Germany. It was really getting to me. It is certainly not a world one would choose to live in. I found myself a little unsatisfied with the ending, although the events leading up to it were exciting.
This ended up being a fairly interesting, "something different" read.
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LibraryThing member slim_rusty
A fast paced thriller set in a highly detailed and terrifying alternate history. A must read, even just for the "what if" factor of it all
LibraryThing member Gwendydd
A murder mystery/thriller set in an alternate history where the Nazis won WWII.
I was impressed at how well the alternate history and the story worked together. Murder mysteries can often take place in just about any setting, so I was afraid that the setting wouldn't have much to do with the story,
I thought this was a thoroughly enjoyable book. I listened to the audiobook, and liked the narrator.
I was impressed at how well the alternate history and the story worked together. Murder mysteries can often take place in just about any setting, so I was afraid that the setting wouldn't have much to do with the story,
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but it turns out that the story and the setting are totally dependent on each other. The portrayal of a victorious Nazi Germany is very believable, with a good sense of paranoia and conformity and conspiracy.I thought this was a thoroughly enjoyable book. I listened to the audiobook, and liked the narrator.
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LibraryThing member m_k_m
The brutality and invasiveness of life under the Third Reich presented through the prism of an alternate world thriller. As such, it touches on the nature of war and history, pointing out (in dark reflection) the assumptions by which we justify our particular views of history. A consummate
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introduction to what has become Harris's trademark of presenting historical fact in the form of compelling thriller. Show Less
LibraryThing member Shirezu
I'm glad I finally read this book. It has been on my to-read list for some time now.
This book has a possible answer for the question "What if Hitler won the war?". And it tells it from the viewpoint of a disgruntled, disillusioned police detective who whilst investigating a murder uncovers the
A well-written fast paced book it kept me always wanting to know more. And therein lies the issue I had with it. It just didn't tell me enough. I wanted to know more after it ended, what happened next.
I also wanted to know more about the universe of the book. Just how did the Germans defeat the Allies? Why wasn't France, Holland, etc. part of the new German empire? What about Franco and Mussolini? But I guess that's just the historian in me.
It was still a great book and I highly recommend it.
This book has a possible answer for the question "What if Hitler won the war?". And it tells it from the viewpoint of a disgruntled, disillusioned police detective who whilst investigating a murder uncovers the
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biggest, closely guarded secret of the German Reich. A well-written fast paced book it kept me always wanting to know more. And therein lies the issue I had with it. It just didn't tell me enough. I wanted to know more after it ended, what happened next.
I also wanted to know more about the universe of the book. Just how did the Germans defeat the Allies? Why wasn't France, Holland, etc. part of the new German empire? What about Franco and Mussolini? But I guess that's just the historian in me.
It was still a great book and I highly recommend it.
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LibraryThing member JCAndrijeski
Excellent alternate history/mystery novel. I had some issues with the ending, otherwise it would have been a five-star read, but the research done and overall pace and structure of the book were amazing. Definitely recommend!
LibraryThing member ecw0647
It's 1964, Joseph Kennedy is President of the United States, Adolph Hitler is about to celebrate his 75th birthday and his rule over the European Community since the war ended in 1945. Germany is harassed by partisans and terrorists in the Urals who are provided with weapons and moral support by
A rapprochement between Kennedy and Hitler is in the works, but suddenly several prominent Nazis are discovered dead, either by unexplained accident or suicide. Xavier March, a Berlin SS-Kriminalpolizei investigator, finds the circumstances suspicious, especially when the Gestapo immediately takes charge and closes off all avenues of investigation.
So begins Robert Harris's Fatherland. It's a great detective story based in part on actual documents. Enough said - no point in ruining the plot.
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the United States. A rapprochement between Kennedy and Hitler is in the works, but suddenly several prominent Nazis are discovered dead, either by unexplained accident or suicide. Xavier March, a Berlin SS-Kriminalpolizei investigator, finds the circumstances suspicious, especially when the Gestapo immediately takes charge and closes off all avenues of investigation.
So begins Robert Harris's Fatherland. It's a great detective story based in part on actual documents. Enough said - no point in ruining the plot.
Show Less
Awards
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1992
ISBN
3453072057 / 9783453072053