Fatherland by Robert Harris
A Speculative Thriller Set In Postwar Nazi Germany
Robert Harris sets his detective story in a world in which the Nazis won the Second World War, and produces a pacy, intelligent thriller.
Fatherland was Robert Harris’ first novel, and became an instant bestseller – the rights were allegedly sold for more than a million and a half. It’s easy to see why it immediately fell into the “high concept” category: the novel’s plot centres around a murder investigation and a conspiracy to cover up the Holocaust in a world in which the Nazis won the Second World War. But Harris’ novel doesn’t quite fit with the airport blockbuster image which that quick plot sketch might suggest.
For a start, his “high concept” plot works itself out in decidedly shabby surroundings. Instead of wading into dark glamour amongst legions of SS stormtroopers, inner councils and gleaming uniforms, Harris steers his hero towards petty bureaucrats, a soured marriage and a son who’s ashamed of his father’s refusal to join in with Party activities. Harris has cited George Orwell as a favourite author in the past, and there’s an obvious influence of 1984 in this aspect of the book. There’s also a hint of the kind of seedy machinations typical of John Le Carré’s works – Robert Harris wrote a biography of the novelist which has been blocked until the Le Carré’s death.
Unfortunately Harris lacks the breath of imagination, or command of detail which Le Carré and Orwell displayed in their fictional worlds. Fatherland isn’t quite as convincing as his depiction of the austerity of wartime Britain in Enigma, as it has to explain and describe its subject at the same time. The speculative history doesn’t quite mesh with the down-at-heel realism, and the plot involving a German policeman and a female American journalist feels a little unoriginal. When Fatherland is inevitably filmed, it will slip easily into a screenplay.
However, it might be unfair to compare Harris with his own novelistic favourites, and Fatherland is a cracking good read. There are neat historical jokes, such as the sly references to President Joe Kennedy and the British royal couple King Edward and Queen Wallace, which work well. A particularly effective touch is Harris’ imagining of the arriviste megalomania of Nazi postwar architecture, which hectors its own citizens and desperately “trumps” past civilisations.
Possibly it is Harris’s success in writing an intelligent thriller which makes the reader look for even more. Fatherland will not please those just after a Nazi version of Sharpe, or a particularly penetrating psychological novel, but it is atmospheric, dramatic, pacy and well constructed.
