FATHERLAND
About two years ago, in fact almost to the day, I was in Mexico with my mum and a film came on in the apartment. The name of this film was Fatherland and it was based on the Robert Harris novel. Now two years down the line I have finally read that very novel and well where to begin, what to say? I loved it.
So I guess I should explain what I enjoyed about it. The best place to start would of course be the beginning, the plot line. So here goes.
It's April 1964 and the whole of Germany is getting ready to celebrate Adolf Hitler's 75th birthday, the Furhertag, as you can probably guess the book is set as if the Germans had won the Second World War. Seems harmless enough but one day the body of an old man is found in a lake on the outskirts of Berlin and the main character Xavier March is the investigator for the case, however this is purely by chance or so you are lead to believe. A couple of days later the body of another man is found. March discovers that both of these men were government officials and starts to question their deaths. He believes that there is some sort of conspiracy going on...spoiler...and finds out later that there actually is.
March develops communication with an American journalist, Charlie Maguire, who actually discovered the body of the second man. Charlie and March are suspicious of each other but they are both aware that they must trust each other. She wants a story to take back to America and he wants to know the truth, a dangerous thing in 1964 Germany. Together they find out more and more disturbing information about how corrupt the government are and eventually find out what actually happens to all of the Jews who are "evacuated" to the east.
Charlie and March develop a relationship, but don't be put off by that. It is not your typical lovey dovey relationship. There is loved shared and a few heart warming moments but their conversations consist mostly of facts about dead government officials or they sit in deep silences. They are both aware of their need for each other. The plan is for the truth to be published so that the world will see that Germany is not the great and glorious nation it claims to be. Their plan is to show Germany for what it really is.
What disturbed me was how true to life the plot could actually be. At one point the book explains that, because Germany won the war, in all of the schools in the west, that's France, Spain, Britain, Italy and the likes, the second language is German. To think that if fate had played that card we actually would all be speaking German is a frightening thought.
Robert Harris has an amazing skill for description and although this book took me slightly over three weeks to read, despite it only being 383 pages long, each time I picked it up I didn't want to put it down, I just got so involved in the story and with the characters, particularly March. The way you actually feel sorry for March because his ex-wife hates him and so does his son Pili. March does nothing but work and eventually even that is destroyed because of his own natural curiosity and hatred for the German system.
Some of the parts that disturbed me the most because of the description were: when Pili tells March just how much he hates him, you can practically see the moment where March's heart breaks. Or when Robert Harris describes a visit by Martin Luther (German Foreign Minister) to Auschwitz Concentration Camp. He describes in vivid detail everything about the place, the brickwork, the smell, and the prisoners. It makes you feel like you are there seeing it for yourself. Particularly disturbing when he moves on to describe the gassing of the Jews, and about how they were tricked into believing they were getting cleaned. I actually jumped when Harris describes one man banging on the chamber door. Later on Harris describes fairly graphically how Globus, the main officer of the Gestapo breaks March's arm (spoiler moment) with a baseball bat. I cringed at the thought.
This book had a gripping storyline there was never a dull moment and it is quite frightening when you realise that a lot of the documents mentioned within the novel are authentic. It makes you think or at least it made me think. There is actually a note at the end of the novel from the author explaining that many of the names mentioned were real people and explains just how each of these people actually died. It also explains what documents were authentic. I found this quite interesting because I personally never realised any of the documentation was real.
What I liked about my copy of the book was how at the start of each chapter the first letter is very typically Nazi style; it is very Gothic, iron cross style. The book itself is split into seven parts, each part coincides with a day. The events in the book all take place within a week as the first body is found a week before Furhertag. How is this possible? For a start it’s fiction anything is possible in fiction and well through the book Zavi (March) works around the clock catching an hour or so sleep here and there. This is very effective because you see the importance of each day and can understand the development of facts and lies, particularly in the last part, the day of Hitler’s birthday. At the start of each part there is a quote from either Hitler or someone else, which sets the mood for the following chapters.
“Powerful and chilling…convincing in every detail.” Martha Gellham, Daily Telegraph.
Well I couldn’t agree more with that statement. This book grabbed me from the word go and each time I picked it up I didn’t want to put it down, despite my body’s protests. After reading this I can’t wait to read Enigma, which also got made into a move. I think I have found a new favourite author, along with Anne Rice, Stephen King, Christopher Pike and the authors of Red Dwarf Rob Grant and Doug Naylor. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes to be caught entirely in fiction. I wouldn’t recommend to those who don’t want to think even a little. I personally found this to be an amazing book, thrilling, full of suspense, disturbing, thought provoking, touching at moments, dramatic…just brilliant. It’s been a while since I have been lost in a good book and I intend on doing it lots more now that Uni is done for the summer so expect more reviews.
EXTRA INFO
Cost £5.99 prob cheaper online
Movie based on it
First Published in UK 1992
Publisher: Arrow Books
Other novels: [fiction] Enigma and Archangel
[non fiction] Good and Faithful servant
Selling Hitler
The making of Neil Kinnock
Gotcha!
A higher form of Killing(with Jeremy Paxman)
I hope I never ruined it too much for you all.
Thanks a lot for reading
Vicky xx
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