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jorisrot 's review for:
Fatherland
by Robert Harris
What would the world be like if Nazism had won the war? I think it's an interesting theme and a pretty dark universe to build. The author commits itself to this difficult mission through a novel of crime, corruption, and journalism. March is a police detective in Berlin, being a relatively prominent veteran of the war but currently a not very active member of Nazi society, he comes across the case of the murders of certain former important figures of the regime. While investigating, he realizes that the Gestapo and Heydrich are behind this, intending to eliminate the witnesses of the Holocaust and prevent the talks between the Nazi empire and the United States from being interrupted.
In this dramatic novel, we also see glimpses of German society, where everything is militarized, uniformed, and monitored. The monuments are gigantic and the military hierarchy is fundamental. March ends up involved with the American journalist Charlotte Maguire, who is a witness and also ends up being the detective's lover. They both investigate and find clues on their trips to Switzerland (which is still the banking capital of the world) and in their different jobs in Berlin. After discovering the reasons why the regime wants to eliminate the witnesses and the evidence, our lovers decide to flee, but only the American woman we believe is successful since it is something that the protagonist only imagines.
I think the best part is the whole ending, when you discover how the ideology of the regime causes March's son to hand him over to the authorities, how his best friend was involved throughout the case informing the Gestapo, and how all the characters who say being shocked by the information about the Jewish Holocaust they simply do it to obtain information about where the journalist is. The end is a race of emotions betrayals and hope. We assume that March commits suicide when he is surrounded and we are left with the hope that the information that Charlotte "manages" to get will change the world, but as they repeat in the book there is not much hope that they will believe or care.
In this dramatic novel, we also see glimpses of German society, where everything is militarized, uniformed, and monitored. The monuments are gigantic and the military hierarchy is fundamental. March ends up involved with the American journalist Charlotte Maguire, who is a witness and also ends up being the detective's lover. They both investigate and find clues on their trips to Switzerland (which is still the banking capital of the world) and in their different jobs in Berlin. After discovering the reasons why the regime wants to eliminate the witnesses and the evidence, our lovers decide to flee, but only the American woman we believe is successful since it is something that the protagonist only imagines.
I think the best part is the whole ending, when you discover how the ideology of the regime causes March's son to hand him over to the authorities, how his best friend was involved throughout the case informing the Gestapo, and how all the characters who say being shocked by the information about the Jewish Holocaust they simply do it to obtain information about where the journalist is. The end is a race of emotions betrayals and hope. We assume that March commits suicide when he is surrounded and we are left with the hope that the information that Charlotte "manages" to get will change the world, but as they repeat in the book there is not much hope that they will believe or care.