Fatherland
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4.3 • 192 Ratings
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- £4.99
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
'A writer who handles suspense like a literary Alfred Hitchcock' Nelson Mandela
April, 1964. The naked body of an old man floats in a lake on the outskirts of Berlin. In one week it will be Adolf Hitler's 75th birthday. A terrible conspiracy is starting to unravel . . .
'Robert Harris has created the whole structure of a totally corrupt society in a way that makes the flesh creep' Sunday Times
'Powerful and chilling . . . convincing in every detail' Daily Telegraph
'Clever and ingenious . . . its breeding is by Orwell, out of P.D. James, a detective story inside a future shock' Daily Mail
There are currently two different covers and possibly a mix of stock until December 2022. They will be assigned at random.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
An eerie, detailed alternate history serves as the backdrop for this otherwise conventional crime thriller. The setting is Berlin, 1964, some 20 years after the Third Reich's victory in WW II. Germany and the U.S., the world's two superpowers, find themselves in a cold war resulting from a nuclear stalemate; but U.S. President Joseph P. Kennedy is soon to visit Berlin for an historic summit meeting with Hitler, clearing the way for detente. Meanwhile, cynical police detective Xavier March investigates the drowning of Josef Buhler, former state secretary in the General Government. When the Gestapo takes over the case--ruling it suicide--March continues his investigation at the risk of his life, uncovering a deadly conspiracy at the highest levels of the Reich. With the help of American reporter Charlotte Maguire, he finds hard evidence of the wartime extermination of Europe's Jews, a secret that Buhler and his colleagues have been murdered to protect. Of course March and Maguire fall in love along the way. Harris ( Selling Hitler ) generates little suspense in this tale beyond his piecemeal rendering of the novel's unusual historical setting. The characters are flat and the plot largely predictable. And readers may well question the taste of using the Holocaust as the point of departure for a rather insubstantial, derivative thriller. 75,000 first printing; BOMC selection.
Customer Reviews
Another great read from Robert Harris
Mostly enjoyable, but it started to drag in the second half.
Though the final 100 pages were engrossing again.
Maybe it was just too long a story, but well worth the read
Daunting and chilling
This is the second book of Robert Harris’ that I have read, the first one being 'An Officer and a Spy'. While the latter book shows Harris’s maturity as a writer, this, his first book, is a slow-starter with an excellent climax. An excellent premise for a book - an exploration of the German Reich’s barbaric history through the eyes of a people ignorant of the truth in 1964 - and the convincing character of the protagonist, a Detective in the SS who stumbles onto a murder case he should never have investigated, lead to an ending both thrilling and appalling. Now to read another of his books!
Brilliant
I've always enjoyed Harris' work. This one never disappoints. It does drag slightly towards the end, but the characters are believable and the setting is frightening. Give it a go before dismissing it.