Fatherland

I don’t know whether many of us will be familiar with the central conceit of this novel: it was a bestseller, but in the early 90s when I wasn’t paying attention to trends in literature. I knew of it somehow, and was saving it because it’s pretty much all my guilty-pleasure genres in one: historical fiction detective story, set in parallel universe. In short, it’s an alternative 1964 in which Germany has won WWII and most of Europe is under the rule of Adolf Hitler, who is about to celebrate his 75th birthday.

It isn’t actually necessary to know much history in order to enjoy this book; I assume most literate adults are aware that Germany did not, in fact, emerge victorious in 1945. I know some history, not all, and I found that it did increase my enjoyment of the book; presumably it’s a direct proportion kind of situation right up until your expertise leads you to spot errors in the text (Michael Molkentin, looking at you). One thing I did wish was that my knowledge of Berlin was a bit better (or, you know, existed), so I could spot the changes made by the author. Apparently, the Berlin of the novel was that of Speer’s ultimate plans.

The plot itself concerns a stereotypical antisocial detective investigating the death of a man whose body washed up on the banks of the Havel (which I looked up on Google maps). This starts in motion a train of events that threatens not just his life, but the existence of the greater German empire. It’s interesting to note that, in a totalitarian regime, an antisocial anything is far from “stereotypical”, since asocial qualities are likely to thicken your Gestapo file. I don’t want to say too much about the plot itself because it’s hard to avoid spoilers, and you don’t want spoilers in such a plot-driven book. One thing I will say is that one of the premises of it is that, 20 years after the holocaust, the average German citizen remains unaware of what actually happened to the Jewish population of Europe, and I’m not sure to what extent that’s believable. That said, I don’t think it ultimately undermines the premise of the novel, which has, let’s face it, a pretty great hook. Generally, it was addictive and very satisfying.