It is twenty years after Nazi Germany's triumphant victory in World War II and the entire country is preparing for the grand celebration of the Führer's seventy-fifth birthday, as well as the imminent peacemaking visit from President Kennedy.Meanwhile, Berlin Detective Xavier March -- a disillusioned but talented investigation of a corpse washed up on the shore of a lake. When a dead man turns out to be a high-ranking Nazi commander, the Gestapo orders March off the case immediately. Suddenly other unrelated deaths are anything but routine.Now obsessed by the case, March teams up with a beautiful, young American journalist and starts asking questions...dangerous questions. What they uncover is a terrifying and long-concealed conspiracy of such astonding and mind-numbing terror that is it certain to spell the end of the Third Reich -- if they can live long enough to tell the world about it.

Alessandro Rosetti

Ben Robertson

Jeremy Mortimer

Percival

James Crowe

Jeff Forshaw

Kieran Freemantle

Chris Yea

Victor Hugo Ehlers

Xavier Vowles

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Fatherland

In real life, Joey P. was a rabid  anti-semite,  a rumored Nazi sympathizer, and quite a little bootlegger during Prohibition...way to role model for John, Robert and Teddy) . While there are numerous fascinating little details that Harris incorporates into the narrative, here are the critical “points of divergence” between this story’s “alternative history” and our reality:   1. In the novel, German intelligence became aware that the British had cracked the enigma code, and use that knowledge to lure the British fleet to destruction via false intelligence. Thereafter, the German U-Boats are able to starve Britain and force them into a demoralizing treaty in 1944. As a result the Normandy invasion never occurs.    2. Partially as a result of 1 above, in the novel, WWII was still ongoing in 1946, when Germany tests its first “atomic bomb” and then fires an unarmed “V-3” rocket to explode over New York City as a demonstration of strength. Soon after, the U.S. agrees to a peace treaty with the Nazis. Germany and the U.S. become the world’s two “superpowers” after the U.S. defeats Japan in 1946 (a year later then in reality).   3. Regarding Russia, in both the book and reality, the German armies on the Eastern Front are stopped at the gates of Moscow at the end of 1941. However, in the book (and unlike reality) the “second major offensive” into the Caucasus was far more successful, and the Nazi’s were able to cut off the flow of oil to the Russian Army. This eventually led to a formal surrender orchestrated by a “rump” government. However, despite the surrender, the Russians (led by Stalin) have continued to wage a guerilla war against the Nazi’s for 20 years, much to the pain and angst of the Reich.  4. In the novel, as a result of the Nazi victory, the full scope of the Holocaust has been hidden and “explained away” by the German government...though rumors of atrocities still exist.       PLOT SUMMARY :    The main character, Xavier March (Rutger House for those who saw the HBO movie adaptation), is a detective with the  Kriminalpolizei , the German police agency responsible for investigating serious crimes (akin to a homicide detective). A week before the arrival of the American President, March is called in to investigate the suspicious death of Josef Bühler, a high ranking Nazi official (and real life war criminal).   The rest of the book takes the form of a standard, but interesting,  crime/mystery novel set against the backdrop of this “alternative” Germany.  During March’s investigation, he uncovers evidence of a vast conspiracy involving high-ranking Nazi Party members and their activities during WWII. I won’t say anymore, but I assume most people reading this can guess what the conspiracy involves, and I thought this aspect of the story was very well done.      THOUGHTS :    Pros/cons and why the 3 stars   On the pro side, the world imagined by Robert Harris is both frightening and very compelling. The evil of the Germany portrayed in the novel (i.e., post war) has a very authentic feel to it. There is a pervasive attitude of superiority, enforced loyalty and “big brother” paranoia, along with a whole underclass of minorities from conquered nations forming a permanent underclass. It is chilling because you get the sense that it “could have” happened this way.   Also, on the pro side, the central mystery is a corker and I loved the way Harris unveiled the underlying thesis behind it. In addition, the writing is good and the story moves along at a pretty good clip.   HOWEVER...  On the con side, I think this book got itself trapped between two different kinds of novels. The story is about 400 pages. As a mystery, this was just too long. On the other hand, as an “alternative historical fiction” novel, 400 pages wasn’t nearly long enough. I would have loved to have spent time learning about the details of day to day life inside the author’s Germany, and reading descriptions of the geo-political dynamic existing as a result of the alternative history.    Unfortunately, what Harris did was try and marry the two, leaving us with a “bloated” mystery with some fascinating, but too slim,  background details peppering the narrative. Don’t get me wrong, I still liked it, but I was disappointed because I think there are two 5 star stories in there somewhere.       So...  While, on the whole, I liked the book, I think it tried to do too much and ended up being less effective than it should have been as either a mystery or an alternative history.   Still, a good read, and thus...    3.0 stars. Recommended.

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