Book of the Week

Fatherland by Robert Harris
Recommended by Chris Waring

Robert Harris's 1992 novel Fatherland provides a fascinating insight into how Germany might have looked in 1964, had Adolf Hitler led the nation to victory in the Second World War.

Contrary to expectations, the novel does not follow the infamous leader of the fascist state, who is soon to turn 75 - in fact, we learn that as his age has progressed, Hitler has shrunk away from the country's political limelight, and he walks around Berlin in civilian clothing.
The story instead focusses on an SS Major, Xavier March, who makes a phenomenal discovery when looking into the seemingly unsuspicious death of a former Nazi bureaucrat in the Berlin suburbs.

What makes this novel so intriguing is how the particular time-frame and events that occur within it are just part of Harris's own speculation as to what could have happened from the end of the Second World War onwards - and details of this are fed to the reader through flashbacks, and through March's remarkable discovery.

I would recommend this book as it contains a truly absorbing alternative history of post-World War Two civilisation that seems perfectly plausible and realistic, had one or two key moments in history gone the other way.  This is cleverly integrated into the happenings in Berlin 1964, which are equally engrossing, and contain an unexpected twist: it is a must-read for anyone interested in history.