September 1938: Hitler is determined to start a war. Chamberlain is desperate to preserve the peace. The issue is to be decided in a city that will forever afterwards be notorious for what takes place there. Munich. As Chamberlains plane judders over the Channel and the Fhrers train steams relentlessly south from Berlin, two young men travel with secrets of their own.
Hugh Legat is one of Chamberlains private secretaries; Paul Hartmann a German diplomat and member of the anti-Hitler resistance. Great friends at Oxford before Hitler came to power, they havent seen one another since they were last in Munich six years earlier. Now, as the future of Europe hangs in the balance, their paths are destined to cross again. When the stakes are this high, who are you willing to betray? Your friends, your family, your country or your conscience?
Barb takes care of the web orders here at Boffins, and is your contact for book club enquiries. She spends all her spare time curled up on the couch reading and for the last several years has reviewed books on the Afternoon Program on ABC radio Perth.
Anyone who has read a Robert Harris novel knows he can tell a good story. Often he writes historical fiction, sometimes, as was the case in Fatherland, changing the course of history. With this new novel he has woven a thriller into the events of September 1938 in Europe. With Hitler eyeing off Czechoslovakia, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain calls a conference between himself, the Fuhrer and the leaders of France and Italy in an attempt to find a compromise and avoid war. A young German civil servant makes contact with British intelligence, offering to provide proof of Hitler’s real intentions, and Hugh Legat, a junior in the Foreign office, is charged with the job of arranging a rendezvous to receive the information.
It’s odd how, even when you know the outcome of an event, a story well told can still be full of nail biting tension. I really enjoyed the thriller aspect of Munich, but also found all the historical detail fascinating.
