Many people were certainly choosing the route you describe to push away the problem, but I think it's also true that Germany has long struggled how to adress and process the topic in an adequate way - many other post-genocidal countries have never broadly adressed it, or don't even use the word genocide for the, well, genocides they committed see Learning from the Germans: Race and the Memory of Evil.
So the discussion around how Hitler should be portrayed, the framing of the narrative was an important stage of the discussion, and frankly: When I look at some sentimental love stories set during the Holocaust that you can find here on Goodreads, I think that's disgusting. The Holocaust is not a backdrop, a theater device, a narrative instrument to heighten the drama in a written soap opera - I know this is a very German sensibility that stems from this discussion described above, but I think it's an important discussion to be had.
When I see how Americans, in the context of Lost Children Archive , compare the crisis at the Mexican border to the Native American genocide, that degree of stupidity makes me want to scream - it's the result of not questioning your own national narrative. I haven't read Vermes, but I have to admit that I only heard bad things about it, because the writing is said to be poor and the humor very questionable. Oct 09, Kate Quinn rated it it was amazing.
A chilling alternate history that poses the question: what if Hitler won? A German investigator named March tries to solve a murder, but what really rivets the attention is the world he takes for granted.
This is a world where the German Reich has swallowed France, England, and Russia, President Kennedy Joe, not JFK is meeting with Hitler to declare a pact between nations, and a typical personals ad in the newspaper reads "Pure Aryan doctor desires male progeny through marriage with healthy, A A chilling alternate history that poses the question: what if Hitler won?
This is a world where the German Reich has swallowed France, England, and Russia, President Kennedy Joe, not JFK is meeting with Hitler to declare a pact between nations, and a typical personals ad in the newspaper reads "Pure Aryan doctor desires male progeny through marriage with healthy, Aryan, virginal, young, unassuming, thrifty woman; broad-hipped, flat-heeled, and earringless essential. This is a book to read in a growing daze of horror; you will flip the last page with a shudder of thanks that this world, if just barely, didn't happen.
View 1 comment. Oct 09, Jon Nakapalau rated it it was amazing Shelves: war , politics , favorites , fiction , nazi-germany.
As Hitler's 75th birthday approaches the murder of a man who has hidden ties to the top of the party is discovered. Detective Xavier March must now walk a tightrope over the chasm of state secrets as the Gestapo tries to cut the rope Dec 20, Dimitri rated it really liked it Shelves: fiction , sf-fantasy.
There are many books out there set in the universe of an Axis victory, but few capture its atmosphere so well: the suffocating conformism that indoctrinates the post-war generation, the casual cruelty of the regime's Praetorians, the ubiquitous double faces and hidden blemishes of the fanatics.
When March travels to Switzerland "from one prison into another" he pretty much sums up the mental state of the dissident in any dictatorship. Jun 27, Darwin8u rated it really liked it Shelves: , british , fiction , crime-noir , dystopia.
It's my birthday and late, so I'll review this tomorrow. If Gestapo dreams don't get me. But for now, Robert Harris is definitely a guilty pleasure. Xavier March in an investigator with the criminal police, and he is as stereotypical a noir detective as they come: divorced, disillusioned, unhealthy, incapable of letting go when he smells something fishy… He works in Berlin, the capital of what is now Greater Germany, a veritable monument of a city entirely devoted to the glory of the F.
Early one morning, he is called up to investigate a dead body fished out of a lake. Said body once was an important bureaucrat, so the Gestapo takes over the case, but not before March notices something strange about the case and goes down a dark and dangerous rabbit hole.
And considering we know how things really turn out, the reveals are not quite a shock so much as an invitation to imagine what it would be like to realize your entire society is built on the fruits of genocide. But the predictable elements are easily forgiven because the gritty noir novel atmosphere and creepy setting are captured so well. View all 8 comments. This book had been on my radar for quite some time and I finally got it from my library.
It was a very enjoying read indeed. The book presents an anternate history scenario where Hitler has won the Second World War and Eastern Europe has been conquered by the Nazis.
The nations of Western Europe has been forced into a trading block and the German currency is accepeted all over continental Europe. Hitler's birthday is approaching and people are getting ready to celebrate. A body has been discovered This book had been on my radar for quite some time and I finally got it from my library.
A body has been discovered and enters Xavier March, ex-navy and presently an investigator in Kripo - the Kriminal Polizei. The body turns out to be that of a once-powerful Nazi and thus begins the investigation. March is a good detective and a decent human being. He is what the Nazis term as - "asocial"- he does not care for the Nazi ideology, is not a party member, ignores the Hitler Salute. He is divorced and has a strained relationship with his ten year old son, who has been brainwashed to hate him.
His work is the only thing that keeps him going. Some people have compared this novel with the Gorky Park - an excellent novel and drawn similarities between Xavier March and Arkady Renko, the protagonist of Gorky Park. Certainly the two characters are similar but in my humble opinion it is not fair to compare the two novels.
March finds that his investigation is obstructed by the Gestapo and a certain, very high ranking official is involved. The Head of Kripo offers to help but can he be trusted! Human beings can do anything to further their agenda or hide their crimes. Taking the help of an American reporter based out of Berlin, March risks everything to solve the case. I won't say anything more about the story - I don't want to spoil the plesaure in case you want to read it.
Robert Harris has done a splendid job. The suffocating restrictions and continual brainwashing, the draconian laws regarding inter-racial relationships, the fear of living under a dictatorial regime is evident all through out the book but everything has been incorporated seamlessly into the narrative. The focus on the mystery never wavered. The book does not have the high octane action one can expect in a Frederick Forsyth novel but the atmosphere of mystery and tension makes up for it very well.
The reason behind the crime and how March solves it would keep you engrossed. I am very satisfied and would recommend it lovers of thrillers. Even if you don't like "alternate history", you can give this book a try.
A solid if somewhat template like thriller, with a lukewarm hero, to finish of the reading year However this war may end, we have won the war against you; none of you will be left to bear witness, but even someone were to survive, the world would not believe him. There will perhaps be suspicions, discussions, research by historians, but there will be no certainties, because we will destroy the evidence together with you.
And even if some proof should remain and some of you survive, people will sa A solid if somewhat template like thriller, with a lukewarm hero, to finish of the reading year However this war may end, we have won the war against you; none of you will be left to bear witness, but even someone were to survive, the world would not believe him. And even if some proof should remain and some of you survive, people will say that the events you describe are too monstrous to be believed: the will say that they are the exaggerations of Allied propaganda and will believe us, who will deny everything, and not you.
Xavier March is drawn into an elaborate plot after a body of a high party official is found at a lake in Berlin. Soon he is embroiled in bureaucratic infighting between the Gestapo Geheime StaatsPolizei and the Kriminal Polizei, his son hates him and he gets involved with a young American journalist.
Also Swiss bankers, the Wannsee conference and George Orwell like interrogations feature prominently. This is because Fatherland feels quite template like and as a standard thriller. But only at the end, when the final solution is touched upon by Harris, the society starts to feel less normal and the monstrosity and the ethical questions whereupon this alternative history is based, starts to loom large.
In the end the below quote, attributed to the Fuhrer, captures this feeling, and the heart of the problem this novel tries to tackle, maybe best: People presently revered the French Revolution, but who now remembered the thousands of innocents who died? Revolutionary times were governed by their own laws. When Germany had won the war, nobody would ask afterwards how we did it.
What if Hitler had won? During that period, Germany had the time to build their own atomic bombs, ushering in a cold war with America. With Germany enjoying unprecedented economic success coupled with a vast, overreaching empire, a question still lingered — whatever happened to the Jews?
However, rumors of mass slaughter still persist. The story follows Xavier March, an investigator for the Kripo the German police as he looks into the mysterious death of Josef Buhler, a secretary and deputy governor of Nazi-controlled Krakow.
He forms a friendship with an American reporter and together, they begin to establish a connection among the deceased. My only complaint deals with what felt like a shoehorned romantic connection between March and MaGuire.
Otherwise, I thought this was a hell of a read. View all 3 comments. Jul 28, Jill Hutchinson rated it really liked it Shelves: wwi-wwii , fiction. Since history is so interesting I often wonder why I pick up a a"what if" book based on a mix of fact and fiction. But after seeing some good reviews on this book, I thought I would give it a chance and am glad that I did.
Basically the story is a police procedural but it is set in a Europe which is now under Nazi rule. It is set in and Europe is preparing to celebrate Hitler's 74th birthday. Xavier March is an officer in the Kripo , a police unit one step below the Gestapo and is called to t Since history is so interesting I often wonder why I pick up a a"what if" book based on a mix of fact and fiction.
Xavier March is an officer in the Kripo , a police unit one step below the Gestapo and is called to the scene of an apparent suicide of a former Nazi high official. It becomes obvious to him that this is not a suicide but a murder. This discovery leads him to other suspicious deaths of Nazi elite and straight into big trouble.
I don't want to give away too much of the complex plot since it would involve too many spoilers. I will only say that Officer March finds information that would throw the world into chaos and expose the horrors of the Holocaust among other incidents. The author paints a believable picture of what Europe would look like if the Nazi's had won the war and how German society would have evolved. He also explains in his Afterword, that the book uses, for the most part, characters who actually existed and their biographical details are correct up to Their subsequent fates were different and he describes each.
This is a fascinating book, well written, and believable. Aug 11, Erin rated it liked it Shelves: movie , the-kennedy-s , august Meanwhile during an investigation into what seems like a routine homicide, SS detective Xavier March and a beautiful American journalist uncover a deadly and long concealed conspiracy that if brought to light could spell the end of the Third Reich.
Fatherland is alternate World War II history and as someone who has always been deeply fascinated by that time period, when I discovered this book at a library book sale battered and falling apart I had to have it.
This book was in such bad shape that they gave it to me for free and I had to duct tape together in order to read it and I was afraid that it was going to fall apart the entire time I was reading it. It survived! I don't know how I feel about this book. Fatherland has such an interesting premise but I at times felt bored by the writing. For rather long jags nothing happens and when the plot picks up it never went in the direction I wanted it to.
Where was Hitler? Why wasn't more time devoted to explaining how Nazi Germany's WW2 victory affected the rest of the world? Does Israel exist? What do American Jews think happened to their European brothers and sisters? What happen to Churchill, Roosevelt and Eisenhower? I just had a lot of questions and I didn't think Robert Harris explored them at all. Why have an American character if you weren't gonna explain the alternate history American timeline.
Also the ending was anticlimactic. As soon as it was getting good and we were about the blow the lid off of things the book just ends As annoyed as I was by this book I did enjoy it more than I disliked it. I just went into this thinking I would love it and I'm kinda bummed that I didn't.
Hopefully its somewhere in the vast recesses of the internet. Two-Thirds in and the shock of the drama reverberates, no longer is detective story pedestrian for me, from here after I am gripped to the last page. For me the plot is predictable and the character of Xavier March is dull to the discoveries he would unwittingly make.
This land is ruled by fear; where your own family can report you to be disciplined. The story also illustrates how Nazi Germany committed these crimes with the support of other countries. But in the end, what made this story a horrifically shocking read is the contrast. Harris mixes this ordinariness with how a dark truth is unravelled. And though I was not smitten in how Harris told this tale, the crimes that happened during the Second World war should not be forgotten because those mistakes should not be repeated.
Harris, in how he tells this story, does not let us forget this. Fatherland takes a well worn subject, what if Nazi Germany had been successful in WWII, and takes an unusual avenue to explore it. Unlike other books on the subject Fatherland does not concern itself with the big military picture and it doesn't dally in the political decisions that changed history. It takes the changes as a given and explores this strange and horrifying world through the eyes of a simple police officer trying to solve a crime.
It infuses a 's Nazi dominated Europe with all t Fatherland takes a well worn subject, what if Nazi Germany had been successful in WWII, and takes an unusual avenue to explore it. It infuses a 's Nazi dominated Europe with all the recognizable elements of a noir mystery thriller: abuse of power, a femme fatale, a man just trying to find truth in an otherwise corrupt system, death, deception, and double crosses.
The world that this story takes place in is indeed a depressing one. Nazi Germany has come to dominate Europe and is locked into a cold war with the United States. Xavier March, a member of the German police, is called out to a strange crime scene that propels him down the rabbit hole of Nazi secrets, power plays, and lost history. All the keystones of classic Noir setting are present in this book, but with much higher stakes because, you know, Nazis.
Harris does a top notch job introducing the reader to this strange world. Tantalizing hints are dropped about how this world in different but it never becomes the focus of the book. He explores just what it would be like to live under a Nazi police state through the eyes of a war Veteran that remembers life before the party and is somewhat disenchanted with its ideology. We see how such a society warps and controls children, replacing family, community, or religion with the Party and the State as a center for loyalty.
It creates a nation of followers that Harris brilliantly portrays and March cunningly exploits at various points in the book. Because of this setting the acceptable bounds of behavior of the bad guys is much wider. That cop who threatens to put a bullet in your head isn't crooked, he is just following orders from higher up and would likely get a commendation for his act.
March himself is a part of the system and faces the unique challenge of seeking the truth in an environment that is both hostile and fatal for the seekers of certain truths. Harris also sets up the politics of Nazi Germany quite well. It isn't some monolithic entity of pure evil, but a highly bureaucratic one with many factions vying for power. Harris explores the dark nooks and crannies of the Nazi power structure through March's investigation and gives the reader a good feel for what the banality of evil looks like writ large spoiler alert: it doesn't look good.
What I most enjoyed about this book was how vibrant the characters were. Relationships felt natural and organic. The repartee with March and his partner see below were great and felt like a friendship that was many years old. The SS officers' behaviors made sense within the context of their character and you even feel a bit a sympathy for one towards the end. While I typically get very little out of romantic plot lines, the American reporter that March falls in with was also a great, fully realized character instead of just being a pretty face and love interest.
Finally, the prose in this book was outstanding. Harris really knows how to effectively turn a phrase using the voice of his characters: "That was how it was with young men of his age. They heard the same speeches, read the same slogans, eaten the same one pot meals in aid of Winter Relief.
They were the regime's workhorses, had known no authority but the party, and we're as reliable as the Kripo's Volkswagens. Can you imagine what it'll be like with Kennedy in town as well? I'm thinking about my sleep What did you expect to pick up at the morgue? Be exact! A skin rash from his shitty clothes. All in all this was a great book that I enjoyed reading a lot. Some of that may be due to my love of WWII history of which this book does delve in to , but I found the setting engrossing, the characters engaging, and the plot both surprising and perfectly reasonable.
It kept me guessing what would happen next and followed its internal consistency its natural end. While I doubt he will, I would love it if Harris would write another book or twenty set in this alternate world.
Fatherland is definitely worth checking out for those who enjoy alternative histories, WWII, thrillers, or some combination of the three. View all 9 comments. Sep 19, Dyuti rated it really liked it Shelves: holocast-or-ww2 , crime-thriller-mystery. I chanced upon this book after reading Stephen's wonderful review while here on Goodreads. Indeed, the blurb got me so hooked, that for the next four months I tried to hunt it down.
But after futile visits to ALL the city bookstores with my boyfriend, who is also an avid reader, I finally gave up! Apparently, it was out of circulation. And right when I thought I would never be able lay my hands on it, I found a copy on sale on the Internet. A brand new 20th anniversary edition that too. So, I s I chanced upon this book after reading Stephen's wonderful review while here on Goodreads.
So, I seized my chance. I was not disappointed. Plot: In his debut novel, Robert Harris writes an alternate history of what would have happened had Germany defeated the Allies in the 2nd World War.
It is set in , in the week preceding the Feuher's 75th Birthday. A body floats up in the Havel, and a middle aged SS officer starts investigating the case.
Soon he starts digging out secrets and lies long buried, which makes him a target for those who don't want his interference. As Harris puts it "I like the conceit of having an honest policeman working for a criminal regime; a detective investigating a single death in a society founded on the greatest act of mass murder in history. The romance which the author developed between the protagonists seemed a bit contrived.
I mean, it did not seem natural. It's absence would not have made difference to the story in any way. The ending did not seem very well rounded. I do not mean that it was abrupt. It did end properly, but if Harris had written one last chapter or an epilogue, to show the after-effects of the events described or the future fate of the characters, it would have been better. A very personal opinion. Rants: I believe the book's greatest achievement lies not in being a wonderful thriller, but in presenting the dark alternative had the course of the 2nd World War taken such a turn.
What would have been our fates, if Germany led by Hitler would emerge as the biggest superpower of the world, and his crimes against the Jews gone unpunished? This horrifying thought is addressed very convincingly in the book.
People would have lost the power to think freely, and the freedom to question. The SS would keep tabs on you, and even your own 10 year son would be brainwashed to hand you over to the Kriminalpoleizi if you were suspected. Rape and incest would not be considered as sexual crimes, rather having conjugal relations with a person of Polish or otherwise 'unclean' origin, could result in a death sentence. So, for all those who find the act of speculating 'What if?
I'm sure it will prove to be a rewarding experience. As for now, I guess I'll sit back and enjoy the TV show based on the book, and see what they have made of it View all 10 comments. Robert Harris' brilliantly thrilling and thought-provoking debut novel - set in a post WWII 's alternative Germany; one where Nazi Germany had previously won the war.
An excellent thriller set against a wonderfully imagined and evoked backdrop of a world that so very easily might have been The first of many excellent thrillers from the pen of Robert Harris, but this is where it all started. Not to be missed. Nov 09, Jean rated it really liked it Shelves: audio-book , fiction.
Fatherland is a speculative fiction. Our protagonist is Xavier March, a policeman. He is investigating the murder of an old man who was once an important Nazi bureaucrat. The timeline of the story is The book is well written and researched. Considering what is happening in the world today, I found this book most interesting. I also found it intriguing Fatherland is a speculative fiction. The book had several different plots intertwining which created a lot of suspense.
This book is well worth the read. I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. The book is eleven hours twenty-five minutes. Michael Jayston does a great job narrating the book. Jayston is an English actor and a long-time well-known audiobook narrator. Fatherland by Robert Harris, is a book of alternate history set in Germany. This is a Germany where the Nazi's won WWII, took large swathes of territory, reorganized Europe in their own image, and continue to fight Russian partisans in the Ural mountains.
The book follows a German Kripo, Xavier March, who is called to inspect a dead body in a river in Berlin. Buhler is a top Nazi pol Fatherland by Robert Harris, is a book of alternate history set in Germany. Buhler is a top Nazi politician, and the investigation begins to arouse the attention of the Gestapo. March, in typical hard-bitten detective fashion, cannot let this one go. He begins to suspect something greater is at stake, as Germany and the USA begin a Detente to end their "cold war" and the Gestapo begin to take a greater interest in the case.
Soon, March is on the run with a beautiful American reporter as the conspiracy ramps up, and unsettling questions about Nazi Germany's past begin to come to the surface. Potential Spoilers from here on: you've been warned! Robert Harris has written a fascinating book about an alternate history where Germany has won WWII, by tying in a small time detective and a murder case out of his league. Germany is a police state in travel permits are given out only with strict permission, everyone is a Gestapo informant, and the state is run both in the image of an ageing Hitler and as a total police state, not unlike East Germany at this time in actual history.
The story unravels slowly. March begins to have suspicions that the Gestapo are involved, and finds ties to other dead Party members over the past decade.
He uses his contacts and friends, as well as those of his American friend Charlotte. However, it is difficult to know who to trust. Informants are everywhere. The Americans and Germans are working toward Detente, and do not want things to go awry. Joseph Kennedy is looking to be elected again for a third term in office in the US, and the Detente would go along way to improving his ratings at home.
It begins to pick up as March gets deeper into the case, and begins to question the facts surrounding it and how much the Gestapo already know. Three of the dead party leaders, including Buhler, were part of an art ring with spoils from wartime Poland, leading him to a secret account in a Zurich bank.
The men were also invited to a mysterious meeting in by Heydrich to discuss an important matter, but all records have vanished. Something bigger begins to emerge than just the murder. A horrifying secret is buried, and March sets out to find what it is. Harris' book is an excellent work of fiction, but ties in historical detail. Many of the Nazi and American politicians in the book are real.
Reinhard Heydrich was one of the architects of the holocaust, who in reality was assassinated in Buhler, and other murdered Nazi's, including Martin Luther and others, were actually present at a meeting in to plan and implement the holocaust. Nebe, Xavier March's boss, was part of the holocaust in Belarus as a member of the SS unit who rounded up and murdered Jews behind the front lines.
He was later implemented in a plot to assassinate Hitler, but in this timeline became Chief of the Kripo and is a rival of Heydrich's. Harris uses real transcripts and meeting minutes as evidence in this book.
He also uses minutes of Joseph Kennedy, who notoriously made anti-Semitic comments during a diplomatic meeting in Germany in A lot of thought went into this mystery book. The feeling of the mystery of the Holocaust coming to light is fascinating. Germany did try to cover their death camps during WWII, and if they had won, it is likely that few questions would have been asked about them.
Harris also turns history on its head. The world decries the Soviets instead, and their Gulag system and political massacres are abhorred in a similar way to Nazi crimes today. The use of real life Nazi's and what happened to them after the war is also fascinating. This is a wonderful alternate history novel with touches of Neo-Noir fiction, hard bitten detective, and dystopic fiction, as well as the alternate history of course, this book is a really interesting read, and not to be missed if you are into these sorts of genres.
Dec 03, Kavita rated it did not like it Shelves: germany , yawnfest , alternate-history. The premise of Fatherland is interesting. I have been waiting for years to read this book because of it. It is set in a world where the Nazis have won Second World War and are now a major power base in the world. This leads to a LOT of intriguing speculations about how the world might have turned out. Sadly, the book does not even come close to the potential this theme offers.
Harris has done his research, but it's a very basic and narrow research. He knows how the Nazi system functioned but noth The premise of Fatherland is interesting. He knows how the Nazi system functioned but nothing beyond that. Nothing of German cultural practices, nothing about how Germans live everyday. I mean, yes, we know they are oppressed but that's not really world-building. All the characters are cardboard-cut and don't offer much to a reader looking for a nuanced portrayal.
Everything is Anglicised in this German world, you'd think they didn't really win the war! Even the hero is Anglicised, even his name. Why would you mess up a vital but easy thing like that?
Harris also fails to give a real sense of how the world turns out. European countries are now a satellite to the German State, but what about other factors? The World War Two led to the end of colonisation - so what happens to the colonies? Do they get transferred to Germany, like what happened with Namibia, Togo, etc. Or doesn't history change there? What about the Cold War? Harris misses great opportunities to really build a believable world that we can delve into.
The great denouement is no surprise for anyone. But, for some reason, everyone in this world assumes that the extermination of the Jews twenty years ago is going to piss Americans off.
I am not sure why they would do so without there being a really strong political reason. The US did send back Jewish refugees in , so it's not a given. The plot fails here for me. It could have been done better without involving the US. It was just really sloppy plotting. And don't even get me started on that terrible American woman journalist character that seems to be taken from some stock character listing that authors are privy to. The plot follows detective Douglas Archer as he finds himself embroiled in an investigation by SS officers of a mysterious death, and an attempt to bring the United States into the war by an underground British resistance movement.
The novel was adapted into a five-part mini series for the BBC, which aired earlier this year. Written by one of the most well known alternative history authors ever, Harry Turtledove, In the Presence of Mine Enemies imagines a world where the United States avoided entering the Second World War, leading to an Axis victory. Get the latest stories on military history, veterans issues and Canadian Armed Forces delivered to your inbox.
Legion Magazine is published six times a year in English with a French insert. Legion Magazine is published by Canvet Publications Ltd. Facebook-f Twitter Youtube Podcast. August 30, by Legion Magazine. Fatherland by Robert Harris Set in , this alternate-history spy thriller takes place in a world where Nazi Germany launches a massive U-boat attack that eventually leads to British surrender.
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