After Dachau [Paperback]

Daniel Quinn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 3, 2006

Daniel Quinn, well known for Ishmael – a life-changing book for readers the world over – once again turns the tables and creates an otherworld that is very like our own, yet fascinating beyond words. Imagine that Nazi Germany was the first to develop an atomic bomb and the Allies surrendered. America was never bombed, occupied, or even invaded, but was nonetheless forced to recognize Nazi world dominance. The Nazis continued to press their campaign to rid the planet of “mongrel races” until eventually the world – from Capetown to Tokyo – was populated by only white faces. Two thousand years in the future people don’t remember, or much care, about this distant past. The reality is that to be human is to be Caucasian, and what came before was literally ancient history having nothing to do with those then living. Now imagine that reincarnation is real, that souls migrate over time from one living creature to another, and that a soul that once animated an American black woman living at the time of World War II now animates an Aryan in Quinn’s new world, and that due to a traumatic accident memories of this earlier incarnation assert themselves. Compared by readers and critics alike to 1984 and Brave New World, After Dachau is a new dystopian classic with much to say about our own time, and the dynamics of human history.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

From the author of the bestselling novel Ishmael, 1992 winner of the highly controversial $500,000 Turner Tomorrow Fellowship, comes this absorbing cautionary tale imagining a homogenous future society. In 1992 A.D., when the narrator, Jason Tull Jr., the dilettante scion of a famous, incredibly wealthy family, graduates from college, he decides to work for We Live Again, an underfunded foundation dedicated to tracking down and authenticating reported instances of reincarnation. After 10 years and hundreds of dead-end investigations, Jason encounters the case of Mallory Hastings, a 28-year-old librarian from Oneonta, N.Y., who, following a minor car wreck, regains consciousness as a deaf mute. Hoping he has finally stumbled onto the elusive "Golden Case," Jason gains Mallory's confidence. He is ill-prepared, however, to cope with the enormity of his discovery: the person now occupying Mallory's body is Gloria MacArthur, a Manhattan artist born in 1922 A.D. But this is only a hint of a dark, complex conundrum, for the "new" Mallory has scarcely learned to talk when she realizes that Jason's A.D. is not the Christian anno Domini. Quinn's provocative, Orwellian tale imagines that Adolf Hitler beat the Allies to the A-bomb in 1944 and set in place a chilling plan to achieve a world of Aryan perfection. In Mallory/Gloria's brave new world, 2002 years have passed "after Dachau," the chilling A.D. of the title. (Feb.) Forecast: Since the publication of Ishmael and its two companion volumes, My Ishmael and The Story of B, Quinn has gained a cult following. The added intrigue of a revisionist, Nazi-dominated history will likely rally fans, and Context's vigorous promotional plans, including a 20-city reading tour in March to support a 30,000-copy first printing, may extend Quinn's reach.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

This disappointing, poorly conceived new fantasy novel mixes reincarnation, sf, Abstract Expressionism, and the Holocaust. The plot will be familiar to readers who know Quinn's most popular novel, Ishmael, the story of a telepathic gorilla and the dark secrets he reveals about man's conquest of nature. In After Dachau, the year is 4000 C.E., and a dark secret about human history is once again revealed, this time related to genocide. The Aryans have systematically exterminated every other race, and they have somehow been able to conceal the truth about this horror from the masses. Although Quinn's work in Ishmael and elsewhere suggests that he has had interesting and important things to say, this is not his best work. The plotting and characterization are very weak, and Quinn's observations about racism and bigotry, which might have redeemed the novel's other weaknesses, are, unfortunately, superficial and uninspiring. Not recommended. Patrick Sullivan, Manchester Community Coll., CT
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Zoland Books (January 3, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1581952155
• ISBN-13: 978-1581952155
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.7 x 8.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (59 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #360,807 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely Stunning, April 19, 2001

By 

Jason N. Mical (Bellevue, WA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: After Dachau (Hardcover)

I picked up this book at 10:00 last night. It's now three AM, and I jusy finished reading it cover to cover.

After Dachau is simply that good.

A fan familiar with Daniel Quinn's other works, I was pleasantly surprised to find After Dachau to be a more carefully constructed novel than books like Ishmael. Instead of philosophy revealed through conversation, the reader is instead presented with an enormous metaphor.

The premise is simple: a wealthy member of the idle rich persues his dream by volunteering as a researcher at an institute that studies reincarnation. Assigned to a case in New York, he soon finds that nothing is as it seems.

Those who know Quinn's views of human history will likely be able to sniff out the metaphor early on, but After Dachau is accessable even to the average reader. Rather than a dystopic novel like "1984" or "Brave New World," which some of the reviews seem to liken After Dachau to, this book instead forces us to examine our past, rather than be concerned about our future (although a concern for the future logially follows examination of the past!)

I can highly recommend this book. It has the potential to take its place among works like "1984" and "BNW" in classrooms across the world, and it likely should be afforded such an honor.

Give it a read; you won't be disappointed.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Two books in one, July 2, 2001

By 

kacunnin (Bowie, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: After Dachau (Hardcover)

Daniel Quinn's "After Dachau" is really two very different books in one, divided by a clever "trick." The first half is a suspenseful and exciting mystery story centering on the possible discovery of a truly documentable case of reincarnation. The two main characters find themselves on a journey of self-discovery as they explore what it really means to be an individual. If you're a fan of speculative fiction or psychological mysteries, you'll easily get wrapped up in the first part of "After Dachau."

Then comes the "trick." I won't spoil it for those of you who haven't yet read the book, but it's sort of a "Sixth Sense" kind of thing -- a plot trick that shifts the entire course of the novel and changes everything you've read so far.

After the trick (sort of after Dachau!), the book becomes a cautionary tale about what the world could become if we continue to live our lives as the selfish, entitled, "takers" we western white-folks really are (if this doesn't make sense, read "Ishmael"). It's not a bad cautionary tale, and even if you're not a DQ fan, you'll easily see the point he's making. But the book would have been stronger had Quinn stuck with a distorted interpretation of ACTUAL history (a new and frightening way to look at the world of the last 60 years), rather than the alternate history he gives us in "After Dachau". The world the two main characters face in part two of this book is NOT our world -- and as such, it's easy to step back and ignore the message. After all, WE didn't do what these people did. The world we live in today is NOT the world of "After Dachau."

What bothered me most about "After Dachau" was the short disclaimer Quinn placed at the end of the book, disavowing any interest or belief in reincarnation. Clearly the entire first half of the novel was merely a way of sucking in the type of readers who might be susceptible to his philosophy. Once you get past the mid-point (and the "trick"), you're his and the reincarnation story is dropped. Too bad. A really good novelist (without such an obvious agenda, perhaps) would have known how to integrate the story with the message. It would have made a better novel -- and, in the end, a stronger message.

It's a thought-provoking book, however, which is rare -- thus the four stars. Read it. It's worth the time, and you can argue with your friends about it afterward (what's better than that?)!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WoW if you are And WoW if you Aren't into ReIncarnation!, February 21, 2001

By 

"muslimb" (tampa, fl United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: After Dachau (Hardcover)

I've read all of Daniel Quinns books except Dreamer. My favorite is Story of B as far as its ideas and realizations go. After Dachau is the best book by Daniel Quinn that I have read as just a story. He has proven himself as being a great thinker as well as a great writer with this book. Basically his books are MINDBLOWING. After Dachau goes even further by becomming almost disturbing to the reader. Even though the book starts out being about reincarnation it is really about alot more than this. Reincarnation is only the setting by which he brings out his other ideas and introduces the actual setting of the book. Things are not what they seem in the first half of the book. I don't think that it is necessary for people to have read any of Daniel Quinns other books to have read After Dachau. In fact, if you haven't read any of his other books then After Dachau will shock you even more. Believe me it's a real page turner; I read it in less than 48 hrs. If you like this book then you would probably also like Ishmael-Daniel Quinn's bestseller.

Muslim B