- Hardcover: 338 pages
- Publisher: Random House (May 26 1992)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0679412735
- ISBN-13: 978-0679412731
- Product Dimensions: 22.6 x 15.7 x 2.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 680 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (101 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #188,493 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From 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.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
The year is 1964. The setting is Berlin. JFK's father, Joe Kennedy, is president. Edward VIII is king, Wallis his queen. Adolf Hitler is about to celebrate his 75th birthday. In this thriller with a twist, the stalemate which ended World War II has evolved into a cold war, not between the Soviet Union and the United States, but between the Third Reich and America. Police investigator Xavier March handles a case involving the death of a prominent Nazi, an apparent suicide. The trail leads to other suicides, accidental deaths, a numbered vault in Zurich, and a beautiful American reporter. March discovers the pattern behind the deaths and locates incriminating papers exposing the Holocaust, which, because Germany didn't lose the war, has been kept secret for 20 years. Harris, author of the nonfiction title Selling Hitler ( LJ 5/15/86), is clearly well versed in the operations and machinations of the Nazi regime. He uses this knowledge to create a realistic and frightening world in which we all could be living. Recommended. BOMC selection; previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 3/1/92.
- C. Christopher Pavek, National Economic Research Assocs. Lib., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- C. Christopher Pavek, National Economic Research Assocs. Lib., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Alternate History, 1964,
By Kev11sky (Bakersfield, CA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Fatherland (Paperback)
This is a phenomenal work for a first-time novelist! The book shows the author's knowledge and study of the Nazi system from its inception in the early 1930's until its demise in 1945.The story takes off on a tangent in which Hitler makes peace with Britain in 1941 or 1942 and later withdraws from France and the Low Countries in favor of his primary goal: "Drang nach Osten". Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic States, and the western heartland of Russia are conquered by the Wehrmacht. Leningrad and Moscow are taken. After the so-called "peace treaty" the British Crown and loyalists flee to Canada, as do DeGaulle and the French loyalists. North America is the only refuge for a non-socialist/non-fascist free Libertarian ideology which resists totalitarianism. Freedom of the Press still exists in the USA, in this version of 1964. The Beatles are performing in Hamburg, but they are a bunch of decadent English drug-using musicians from Liverpool. Their music uses savage Negro rhythms. The Jews were relocated to the east, to work camps in eastern Germany and Poland. There was much turmoil in those early years (1940-1945). Who cares, anyway? That's all ancient history. Anyway... if you want to read and think at the same time, this one is a good one.
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Enthusiastic Fiver Stars,
By Fitzsy (Vancouver) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Fatherland (Paperback)
I give Fatherland an enthusiastic five stars and two very big thumbs up! I have read a lot of World War II novels, and a lot of alternate history novels, and this one stands at the top of both categories. I have read it three times and it is without a doubt one of my top five all-time favorite books.The plot is relatively simple (though no less moving) in that it deals with events that we already know much about in this day and age. However, the main characters in this book feel like real people, and through their realistic actions and dialogue help to bring alive the dark alternate reality of Europe under Nazi rule. I found it particularly interesting that the main protagonist is an SS Kriminalpolizei officer: supposedly one of the baddies of history. But again, that's where Harris's skill comes into play, successfully separating the man from the uniform. I couldn't put it down. Highly recommended!
5.0 out of 5 stars
It is absolutely remarkable!!!,
By
This review is from: Fatherland (Paperback)
I have read this novel for the first time many years ago, and it had a profound impact on me. I re-read it a few days ago and the impact of this story on me was even grater than before. The plot, the characters, the setting, are so masterfully describe, as I turned the pages, it convinced me that I was inside the capitol of the Third Reich in 1960's. Naturally, this work is one of fiction, but it has something within it that makes it all too real and all to scary. In my humble opinion, this book is one of the masterpieces of the 20th century, a fictitious tale probing the inner sanctum of our minds. It demands of the reader to figure to answer the question "What if?" But it also points the reader to find the answer within, within the concrete walls of our minds.
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