'Fatherland' by Robert Harris
'Fatherland' by Robert Harris

The good

  • Fascinating premise: an alternate history where Germany won World War II. The book does an excellent job of using a Nazi-dominated Europe in the 60s as the backdrop for the story, slowly rolling out bits and pieces here and there so you can process the implications. Of course, it’s dark and depressing through out, but that is as it should be.

  • The book focuses on a detective investigating a death, and also does a nice job of slowly rolling out the details of that mystery. This serves as an effective way to explore the story’s backdrop.

  • Several interesting characters.

  • It’s a well-paced book with a reasonably satisfying ending. On the whole, it makes a much better use of its premise than The Man in the High Castle.

The not so good

  • The big reveal was fitting, but a little bit of a let down. Would a Nazi Germany that won World War II be hiding the holocaust or especially ashamed if it? Given how open they were about race laws, eugenics, the Aryan race, etc, I’m not sure they wouldn’t have been open about this as well.

Rating: 5 stars