Book – Fatherland

Author – Robert Harris

Pages – 386

Year – 1992

Genre – Alternative History, Crime

Another year, another attempt to kickstart reading books again. The Christmas holidays always give me a little more time to settle down with a book, and I have been really enjoying reading again over the past few days. This is my first one of the year, with another nearly completed. I was spurred this time by a tidy up of the bookcases in what we affectionately refer to as “The Library”, and the thought that there are so many excellent looking books that I have just not put the time in to reading. Hence this read, which is of a book I must have owned for at least ten years, and started at least once, and thought should probably be read or donated. I must say, I am glad I chose the former.

Fatherland is set in an alternate history where Germany prevailed in World War II. We follow Xavier March, a police officer in 1960s Berlin over the course of a week in the lead up to Hitler’s 75th birthday. The body of an important figure in the rise of the Nazi party is fished out of a stream, and March, despite protestations from those much higher on the chain than he, is determined to find out what is going on. This unravels a conspiracy that goes considerably higher than expected, and starts to reveal secrets about the war itself.

This is an unusual crime book. Rather than feeling like a detective chasing down a criminal, it feels far more like our protaganist is the one being chased. There is a constant state of danger throughout that keeps you very much on the edge of your seat, and I really enjoyed that. The characters are somewhat archetypal, but this works within this setting, as the book is driven far more by plot than character – furthermore, archetypal does not mean bad, and they are certainly interesting enough characters in themselves.

There is a certain problem to the book, in that some of the mystery that March and his friends are trying to uncover relates to elements of the war that are unknown by them, but common knowledge in the real world. A concerted effort by the victors of the war to cover up less savory elements of the means of their victory makes absolute sense, so the extent of the crimes of the Nazi party are not known by the characters in the book. For much of the novel I was a little peturbed by this, but by the reveals towards the end, it actually comes full circle and there is a poignency that is fully deserved by this read.

I cannot say I have read much in the way of alternate history such as this, but I really did find it quite interesting, and will probably seek out some more in the future. As a little aside, I started this book on New Year’s Eve, and after I had read about a page or two I recieved an alert on my phone that the New Year’s Honours List had been released. I broke from the book long enough to discover that Harris had just received a CBE. It’s strange how these coincidences happen.

8/10