This copy has a slightly different cover from the one shown. Mainly different colors - it is red and black with text in white and silver. I'll take a picture. :-)

The blurb:

'Powerful and chilling ... convincing in every detail!'
Martha Gellhorn, The Telegraph

April 1964. The naked body of an old man floats in a lake on the outskirts of Berlin. In one week it will be Adolf Hitler's 75th birthday. A terrible conspiracy is starting to unravel ...

Fatherland is set in a world that almost existed but never was: the Berlin that Hitler's architect, Albert Speer, planned to build - the hub of a victorious Third Reich extending from the Rhine to the Urals.

Among its 10 million citizens is Xavier March, investigator with Berlin's criminal police, the Kripo. A brilliant loner, March is assigned to the case of the old man in the lake. His trail leads him to discoveries of wartime corruptions, Swiss bank vaults, love, danger and - most terrifying of all - to the deadly black heart of the Nazi state ...

'The highest form of thriller ... non-stop excitement, pain and terror'
Woodrow Wyatt, The Times

'Robert Harris has recreated the whole structure of a totally corrupt society in a way that makes the flesh creep'
John Mortimer, Sunday Times'

This is a paperback copy from Arrow, published in 1993. The book was originally published in 1992.

This is a book I am very excited about reading ... I'm not going to read it, however, as I have another copy already registered which I plan to read. But because of all the good things I've heard about this book I decided to pick up this copy too. My cunning plan is to start a bookray with this copy ... :-)

I bought this book at a flea market at Tåsen elementary school in Oslo on Sunday, May 13th, 2007.

When I've read my other copy, I will post some more or less profound insights here.

March 10th, 2008:

I just couldn't put it down. The hallmark of a really good book! :-) The plot was so enthralling that I couldn't tear myself away. Stayed up later than I should to finish it. I just had to read one more chapter ... !

This was just an excellent novel in every way. Well written, very well researched, with a thorough understand of the subject matter - life in a fascist superpower. It also works really well as a thriller. An exciting plot which kept at least me guessing till the very end. Good characters, I liked them more than I thought I would after reading the plot summary. Harris made extremely good use of what I would say can be expected to be common knowledge about the Third Reich - the KZs, the Wannsee Conference, etc. A very intelligent plot.

I feel like I should be saying more but I'm not sure what ... I just can't say how much I enjoyed this book. It was a tremendous read, really sucked me in and kept me hooked. Very impressive for a first novel!!

I will definitely be looking out for more books by this author.

Actual cover design shown here ...

I offered the book as a ray today.

The forum thread:
http://www.bookcrossing.com/forum/20/5260727/1

The participants (new readers may be added):

sota48, Hokksund, Norway (ships anywhere) DONE!
kizmiaz, Lisbon, Portugal (ships anywher, prefers within Europe) DONE!
conto, Lisbon, Portugal (ships within Europe) DONE!
Anadyomene, Basel, Switzerland (shipping address in Germany) (ships anywhere) <-- BOOK IS HERE
Kasoswife, Kitchener, Canada (ships anywhere)
darkpunkangel, Montreal, Canada (ships anywhere)
Tori58, Shawano, USA (ships anywhere)
babelfisk, Jönköping, Sweden (ships anywhere?)
iliotropio, Brussels, Belgium (ships anywhere)
mirp, Dublin, Ireland (ships anywhere)
kotus123, Lübeck, Germany (ships within EU) SKIP THIS PERSON!!

Last person on the list - please let's try to continue the ray! :-)

RELEASE NOTES:

Passed this to sota48 at meetup today. We're on - what fun!! :-D I'm really looking forward to hearing some opinions on this book.

Happy reading, everyone!!

I got this from LeishaCamden at the BC meetup this afternoon. I have one bookring to finish before I get on to this. I will try to be quick about it.

I finished this book last night. It is a good thriller and it is cleverly done the way the author makes use of historical events to build up the plot. The gloomy atmosphere of the novel feels just right. And yet I found the book predictable. Half way through I was pretty certain how it would end. I can't say more than this because then I would give away the plot. Don't let this stop you from enjoying the novel. It is a good read.

RELEASE NOTES:

The book travels by air mail to kizmiaz in Portugal on Monday.

Just got it, thanks Sota48.
I still have a couple on the go but it shouldn't take long.

I picked this book up just for a quick browse of the first pages and was hooked, I even stopped the other readings and moved this one out of the TBR pile, that says something for the book, right?
Robert Harris has a way of providing plenty of historical information woven into the plot that’s truly impressive.
This (not historical) but, as someone called it, "What if” novel is fast paced, griping and well written and that makes it work just fine for me. The characters are life like and the plot tight and well built.
I’m not much of a “whodunit” book fan and so I felt the intrigue was well paced and kept me interested, bigger fans of such books might have a different opinion, I wasn’t trying to find out who was behind all the intrigue I just let myself be led by the author and enjoyed the ride.
The premise for the book is very good and it takes some courage to write a book with this particular premise, especially since the Nazi ghost still hangs so fresh over European history. It was a ballsy move and it paid off.
I felt the whole way the story develops and the ending were very true to each other and that doesn’t always happen, so it was like the mythic cherry on top.
We all know what was the Final Solution, although it gets downplayed or exaggerated from time to time by the political class, but by reading this book we also get a glimpse of the logistics it involved and, like the piece of brick March finds, that makes it more real.
I’ll be passing it along when I get an address.

It's with me.
Thank you so much for including me in this bookray LeishaCamden. After everything kizmiaz told me about it, I just couldn't resist it! ;-)

I'll try not to delay it's journey too much, but I still have to finish reading another book and I've been a bit slow these last weeks.

If the book I was reading kept me from picking this one sooner, I must say Fatherland did become a page-turner in my hands!
Like kizmiaz, I'm not much of a “whodunit” kind of book fan and even if we know all along who it is, it has just that kind of rhythm; needless to say it didn't bother me much because that wasn't the point and it really is a very well written book, with a well built story within and with a great ending.
Also, it sometimes left me almost shuddering when imagining it could all easily be real...

Thank you very much for this opportunity.

Flying away tomorrow, Anadyomene's way!


The pic shows the letter from Reinhard Heydrich to Martin Luther, Undersecretary at the Foreign Office, inviting him to the Wannsee Conference (at the Wannsee Conference House Memorial in Berlin)

Arrived yesterday!

edit. september 19th 2008
Uh, I am very sorry to have delayed the ray for so long. In fact, I read the book within two days of its arrival from cover to cover. Then I decided to read it once again, this time without chewing my fingernails and paying attention to details this time. Well, and then I moved house. The book got packed with loving care and stayed in the box until last week. You know how this happens, don't you?

First things first, I much enjoyed the novel and can recommend it wholly. It is as well a suspense–thriller as an interesting exploration of what might have come to pass. What happens to a society that arose out of so much violence? Will violence be celebrated as legitimate action? That would be a terrible world to live in, especially for the weak and the small. Or, will this society rather try to forget about it's bloody past, establishing thus a normality that is en-tirely fake? What will you teach your children? Where could you put your faith?
I liked the way the characters were constructed and explored – and of course the very con-vincing was in which Harris describes the gigantic Reich and its capital city Berlin. Chillingly life-like! In the light of all the research done, I can but wonder at the major blunder Robert Harris made in the choice of his name for the leading character. Xavier March, now, is a most unlikely name for a man born in Hamburg at the beginning of the 20th century. Xavier with this additional i is actually Spanish. The German name would be Xaver, and this is a name with a very alpine ring to it, Bavarian or Austrian.
March, on the other hand, might be a nice play on words in English, but you will find practically no German names ending in –rch. So a reader of German mother-tongue will constantly stumble over this exotic man in a rigidly traditional society. I did, in any case, and it disturbed the otherwise carefully constructed illusion of an all-germanic reich.

I'll send this on as soon as possible. Thank you for the ray!
Anadyomene

Edit 17.12.2008
Hang on - I thought I had mailed this novel already weeks ago. I'd better check...
Edit 19.12.2008
I handed this book over to the german mail on october 7th...
... and another edit six months later ...
new copy, new address, new try
---------------------------------
Today, I sent the replacement copy to darkpunkangel since I was unable to make contact with kasoswife.
The ring is on it's way again. 20th of june 2009

This arrived safe and sound today, thanks for passing this on zoion. I think I will start this book today.

This was ok but not my cup of tea.

I already PMed the next person in line and sent it off as soon as I get their address.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Sent today to Tori58, hope you enjoy the book! And thank you LeishaCamden for letting me join this ray.

Received. Sorry it took me so long to journal - I couldn't read the BCID.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

I enjoyed this book a lot; such an interesting premise.

Oh, joy and excitement! And stress! After reading the JEs above I feel I should start reading at once. On the other hand I need to work and sleep and ... have a life, too.
I'll PM iliotropio for the address, too.

A really exciting book. The plot as well as the counterfactual setting. Really well executed, in my opinion.
I'll try to locate more books by this author!


Now I'm sending it on to Iliotropio.

Edit: sent Dec 16!

Fatherland is now in Brussels. Many thanks for sending it, babelfisk!