Featured Reading Guide
Robert Harris
Fatherland is set in an alternative world where Hitler has won the Second World War. It is April 1964 and one week before Hitler’s 75th birthday. Xavier March, a detective of the Kriminalpolizei, is called out to investigate the discovery of a dead body in a lake near Berlin’s most prestigious suburb. As March discovers the identity of the body, he uncovers signs of a conspiracy that could go to the very top of the German Reich. And, with the Gestapo just one step behind, March, together with an American journalist, is caught up in a race to discover and reveal the truth – a truth that has already…
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Robert Harris is the author of six novels Fatherland , Enigma , Archangel , Pompeii , Imperium and The Ghost all of which were worldwide bestsellers. His work has been translated into thirty-one languages. He was born in Nottingham in 1957 and is a graduate of Cambridge University. He worked as a reporter on the BBC s Newsnight and Panorama programmes, before becoming Political Editor of the Observer in 1987, and then a columnist on the Sunday Times and the Daily Telegraph . In 2003 he was named Columnist of the Year in the British Press Awards. He lives near Hungerford in Berkshire with his wife and their four children.
topAbout the Book
Fatherland is set in an alternative world where Hitler has won the Second World War. It is April 1964 and one week before Hitler’s 75th birthday. Xavier March, a detective of the Kriminalpolizei, is called out to investigate the discovery of a dead body in a lake near Berlin’s most prestigious suburb. As March discovers the identity of the body, he uncovers signs of a conspiracy that could go to the very top of the German Reich. And, with the Gestapo just one step behind, March, together with an American journalist, is caught up in a race to discover and reveal the truth – a truth that has already killed, a truth that could topple governments, a truth that will change history.
topRobert Harris interview/review
Daily Mail, 24 July 1998
“…On the face of it, the British, by not trying to kill Hitler, may have missed a golden opportunity, one that might have saved millions of lives and brought about a post-war world infinitely less cruel and threatening than the one which grew out of the rubble of 1945.
It may seem surprising, therefore, if I may say – even with the luxury of hindsight – that in my view we most certainly did the right thing by not assassinating Hitler. Personally, I doubt whether such plans were feasible in any case. But even if they had worked, the likelihood is strong that Hitler’s successor would have been even more murderous than the dead Fuhrer…and the war almost certainly would have dragged on.
The most compelling argument against killing Hitler prematurely is that it was vital for the sake of lasting peace for him, personally, to be defeated militarily. As Major Field-Robertson, the head of the Special Operations Executive’s German section, perceptively agreed at the time, assassination ‘would almost certainly canonise Hitler and give birth to the myth that Germany would have been saved if he had lived.’
…So, although the last six months of the war were painful and bloody, they were as necessary as any other part of that long conflict…It was necessary for us to kill the myth of the man, as well as his physical being, and for that reason it is good that the bullet that put out his brain was fired by his own hand, not by an assassin.”
topStarting Points for Discussion
- Did you find the alternative history of Fatherland convincing? If so, what details strengthened that conviction?
- ‘Fatherland works on all levels’ Washington Post. What do you think this means? How do you think Fatherland works best?
- Do you think Robert Harris’s portrayal of women effectively reflects the society he has created?
- ‘History is told through the eyes of the victor.’ How does this statement apply to Fatherland?
- ‘You’re an irony yourself, March, in a way… We set out to breed a generation of supermen to rule an empire…we trained them to apply hard fact – pitilessly, even cruelly…And what happens? A few of you…begin to turn this pitiless clear thinking on us…’ (page 240). What other ironies do you think there are in Fatherland?
- How does the theme of deception work in the novel?
- Do you think Xavier March had a fatal flaw? If so, what was it?
Other Books by Robert Harris
Archangel
Archangel tells the story of four days in the life of Fluke Kelso, a dissi…
Enigma
March 1943, the war hangs in the balance, and at Bletchley Park a brilliant …
Fatherland
April, 1964. The naked body of an old man floats in a lake on the outskirts of…
Suggested Further Reading
- Selling Hitler ~ Robert Harris
- Seizing the Enigma ~ David Kahn
- Birdsong ~ Sebastian Faulks
- Charlotte Gray ~ Sebastian Faulks
- Making History ~ Stephen Fry