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Fatherland: A Novel Paperback – September 5, 2006

by Robert Harris (Author)

322 customer reviews

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Fatherland is set in an alternative world where Hitler has won the Second World War. It is April 1964 and one week before Hitler's 75th birthday. Xavier March, a detective of the Kriminalpolizei, is called out to investigate the discovery of a dead body in a lake near Berlin's most prestigious suburb.

As March discovers the identity of the body, he uncovers signs of a conspiracy that could go to the very top of the German Reich. And, with the Gestapo just one step behind, March, together with an American journalist, is caught up in a race to discover and reveal the truth -- a truth that has already killed, a truth that could topple governments, a truth that will change history.

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Fatherland: A Novel

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Editorial Reviews

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.

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.

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Product Details

Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks; 2007 or Later Printing edition (September 5, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0812977211
ISBN-13: 978-0812977219
Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.7 x 8 inches
Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 322 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #23,760 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #65 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Historical > Alternate History
- #2726 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction
- #3587 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy

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Top Customer Reviews

Fatherland is Chilling, Thrilling Look at What-If

ByAlex Diaz-Granadoson June 8, 2003

Format: Mass Market Paperback

Berlin, 1964.
20 years have passed since Germany's victory over the Allies in World War II. Adolf Hitler has been in power for 31 years, his 75th birthday nears, and a summit meeting between the Fuhrer and President Kennedy has been announced.

This is the intriguing scenario presented by British journalist-novelist Robert Harris in his first novel, Fatherland.

Harris' novel, unlike Peter Tsouras' Disaster at D-Day: The Germans Defeat the Allies, June 1944, doesn't offer us a very detailed "alternative history" of the Second World War, which perhaps would have been the easy way out for a lesser writer. Instead, Harris smartly teases us with little glimpses at how Germany could have won the war while still losing its collective soul.

Fatherland's plot revolves around Xavier March, a former U-boat skipper who has joined the German police, which has been under SS control since the mid-1930s. On a rainy April morning, March has been called to investigate what seems to be a routine incident: a corpse has been found in the Havel River near the area where high Nazi party officials have their mansions.

Of course, if you have read political-police thrillers such as Gorky Park or Archangel, you know there will be nothing routine about this investigation. For this corpse's identity is none other than Doctor Josef Buhler, one of the earliest Nazi party members and former state secretary in the General Government, the part of Poland directly annexed by the Third Reich during the war. Before long, March (who is not a Nazi party member, just a dogged investigator) will follow Buhler's seemingly routine death down a dark and winding path that will lead him to Germany's darkest and best kept secret of all.

For history buffs, this book is a fascinating look at what a mid-1960s Nazi Germany might have been like. Harris paints a chilling portrait of a country still at war with what remains of the Soviet Union while in a cold war with a nuclear-armed United States. Berlin is imagined as Hitler and his architect Albert Speer would have rebuilt it at war's end (in the frontispiece there is an artist's rendering of Hitler's vision for his capital), and readers will shudder with horror to see how far the Nazis' indoctrination of children extended.

Harris keeps things going at a brisk pace, never boring readers or insulting their intelligence. His fictional characters interact with historical characters (although, of course, their fates ended up differently in real life, thank goodness) in a believable fashion. Of course, this type of novel requires willing suspension of disbelief, but it is well-written and, in the end, eye-opening.

33 comments 104 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Original Masterpiece With Something For Everybody

ByAdam Dukovichon March 31, 2001

Format: Mass Market Paperback

I was immediately intrigued with the premise behind Robert Harris' novel Fatherland. What would have happened if Hitler's Germany had won World War II? The reader is taken to Berlin, 1964, which has become a sort of Shangra-la for Europe. U.S. President Kennedy has agreed to come to Berlin for a peace summit, and the capital is swarming with tourists and citizens ready to observe the 75th birthday of Hitler. During all this, though, the body of a high-ranking Nazi is washed up on a shore. Detective Xavier March, a former U-boat captain and SS Sturmbannfuhrer, is dispatched to investigate. His investigation uncovers an old conspiracy among high-ranking Nazis. March, who is not the cold, unhuman Nazi that is common in his country, teams up with an American Journalist, Charlotte Maguire, to find proof and escape alive.
There were many good things about this book. Its setting is very realistic and depressing, its characters range from the intrepid March to the evil Globus, a former Concentration Camp commander who is determined to end March's investigation, to Maguire, the journalist who wants the truth. Although I enjoyed the book very much, I would have liked more details on the resolution of the war, but this book will both frighten and delight. I loved this book and think that you will love it too.

0Comment 62 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

A brilliant concept.

ByGodly Gadflyon November 26, 2001

Format: Mass Market Paperback

Brilliant. No, not the plot, which is certainly above average, but mostly typical of a good suspense thriller. What's brilliant about Robert Harris' "Fatherland" is the concept. The events of this suspense thriller are set in 1964, in post World War II Germany. Nothing unusual so far. Until you realize that Germany has won the war, Europe is dominated by the victorious German reich, and that celebrations are underway for Hitler's 75th birthday. It is this alternate history that makes "Fatherland" a thriller that stands out from the average.
Is it plausible? Harris is well-qualified to write such an alternate history, having written a well-researched non-fiction book on Hitler. In fact the events of "Fatherland" are mostly rooted in history, as Harris notes at the end of the book that many of the characters whose names are used in this novel actually existed, and many of the documents quoted in the text are authentic. The novel centers around the historic Wannsee Conference of 1942, where Hitler's top men met to decide on a permanent solution to the Jewish question: extermination in the horrific gas chambers in places like Auschwitz.
The plot itself is credible and fast moving, although those who are offended by vulgar language, blasphemy and immorality will find these occurring rather too frequently. Xavier March is a criminal investigator who is determined to get to the bottom of the mystery around the body of an old man found floating in a lake outside Berlin. His investigation leads him to discover a series of deaths of high ranking officials. Together with Charlotte Maguire, an American journalist, he uncovers the chilling truth and the heart of the dark conspiracy behind these deaths. But can March and Maguire escape the German reich with a story about a secret so horrible that Hitler's men have done everything possible to remove all trace of? And if they are caught, can they withstand the torture that is sure to follow?
The concept of a political cover-up, government conspiracy in at the highest level, and those threatening to expose it being silenced with death, is not a new concept. But by dressing this concept in new garments of an alternate history, Harris has created a novel that surpasses the average suspense thriller. The alternate history is in many respects fictional, but at its core it is about a horrible reality that is just as shocking today as it was when it was conceived in 1942. In producing "Fatherland", Harris has fathered a novel with a concept so brilliant, that the chilling non-fiction aspects of its story become all the more shocking. And that's why this is a novel not worth missing.

0Comment 32 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

Five Stars

Quite the fantasy story of "what-could-have-happened"

Published 2 days ago by B.S.

Our new fascist state

I highly recommend this book as a introduction to what it is like to live in a fascist state where loyalty to the fatherland, the dictator and the party comes first.Read more

Published 4 days ago by Mindful Reader

True original.

One of the best books i've ever read. Certainly one of the most original!

Published 12 days ago by Amazon Customer

Great for someone that already knows about the Holocaust

Fatherland by Robert Harris is a fictional novel about if the Nazis won World War 2. The date is April of 1964, just before Hitler’s birthday.

Published 13 days ago by Adi Siegmann

Four Stars

Great read. Hard to put down

Published 13 days ago by Clarecpnp

E-books for accessibility and dexterity issues.

I love this book but I am relegated to the world of e-books due to dexterity issies. I have poor usage of my thumb and forefingers (can use thumb and ring/pinky, but that doesn't...Read more

Published 1 month ago by Cameron K.

Usual entertaining mix of history and fiction from Harris, very well done.

I have read most of his books. This one my favourites as it gives a nice view on what could have happened if Germany had not lost the war

Published 2 months ago by BDN

A good yarn

I read this story compulsively. It was a page turner. I wanted it to go on and see the destruction of the Reich.

Published 2 months ago by drti

If you like historical fiction

If you like historical fiction, you will love this book. I read it a few years back and wanted to read it again.Read more

Published 3 months ago by David P

Second time around just as brilliant

I read this when it first came out and have been a fan of Robert Harris ever since, Just as suspenseful, this time.

Published 3 months ago by Kindle Customer

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