- Paperback: 448 pages
- Publisher: Uk General Books; 2nd edition (Dec 1 2005)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0007212062
- ISBN-13: 978-0007212064
- Product Dimensions: 17.2 x 11.2 x 3.4 cm
- Shipping Weight: 259 g
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #504,629 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
First published in England in 1987, this novel departs from Hill's usual mystery oeuvre ( Ruling Passion ). With thoughtfulness and insight that call to mind le Carre, Hill reconsiders an aspect of the German occupation of France during WW II that many Frenchmen would prefer to forget--the collaboration. Set primarily in Paris, the novel follows the lives of Jean-Paul and Janine Simonian, he a Jew, she a boulanger 's daughter married against her parents' wishes. Upon his release from a military hospital after France's humiliating defeat in 1940, Jean-Paul joins the Resistance. For her part, Janine worries--about her two children and the husband who has become emotionally so dark and distant. Gunther Mai, an otherwise kindly German officer in the Abwehr , befriends Janine and uses her as a source of information on her husband's activities--a relationship that works well until he falls in love with her. What Hill portrays so successfully is the conflict between social and personal responsibility. Through a wonderful range of secondary characters, he skillfully characterizes the collaborator in his various guises--from the self-serving black marketeer to the loving mother and wife. Best of all, Hill captures the collapse of morality in occupied France.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
'One of the most consistently excellent crime novelists' Times Few writers in the genre today have Hill's gifts: formidable intelligence, quick humour, compassion and a prose style that blends elegance and grace' Donna Leon, Sunday Times 'The fertility of Hill's imagination, the range of his power, the sheer quality of his literary style never cease to delight' Val McDermid, Sunday Express 'Probably the best living male crime writer in the English-speaking world' Andrew Taylor, Independent 'Reginald Hill's novels are really dances to the music of time, his heroes and villains interconnecting, their stories entwining' Ian Rankin, Scotland on Sunday 'Reginald Hill is on of the finest crime writers ever' Sunday Telegraph
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Redefines the Meaning of Collaboration!,
By Ian Gordon Malcomson (Victoria, BC) - See all my reviews (HALL OF FAME) (TOP 10 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Collaborators (Paperback)
This story is not your typical complex murder investigation made famous by the dynamic detective duo of Dalziel and Pascoe. Instead, Hill has composed a novel that operates outside his normal cultural boundaries of English bourgeois society. The subject is about life in France during WW II and the many complications and conflicts arising from which side people chose to identify with: the Nazis, Free-France, Vichy, or the Marquis. This novel has plenty of unique relationships that are made and unmade as the fortunes of war change. Janine, the main character, is someone whose fierce loyalty to country and family makes her very vulnerable to emotional coercion by the other side. But she is not the only one who is prone to switch sides if the opportunity arises. Charged after the war with collaborating with the enemy, Janine is portrayed as a traitor who is directly complicit in her husband's death at the hands of the Gestapo. Only for the last-minute, revealing testimony of one of her friends and protectors inside the Abwehr, Janine would certainly have been convicted and executed. It seems like many of her compatriots have their moments of weakness too when it comes to betrayal and dissimulation. All her accusers are basically hypocrites that act as effective foils that define how truly decent she is given the circumstances. Everyone has their price for staying alive, and Janine's is keeping her children alive under very perilous circumstances. 'The Collaborators' is a five year, action-packed drama filled with plenty of uncertain adventure, tantalizing suspense, heart-breaking tragedy, and moments of awful truth. Hill does a reasonable job in connecting his readers with the challenges of living in big-city as well as small-town France.
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