In the garden of beasts : love, terror, and an American family in Hitler's Berlin / Erik Larson.
Material type: TextPublication details: New York : Random House Large Print, c2011.Edition: 1st large print edDescription: xvii, 676 p. (large print) : ill. ; 24 cmISBN:- 0739378147 (lg. print : pbk.)
- 9780739378144 (lg. print : pbk.)
Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Materials specified | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Large Print Book | Main Library | Large Print NonFiction | 943.086 L334 | Available | 33111006976795 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
"Larson is a marvelous writer...superb at creating characters with a few short strokes."-- New York Times Book Review
Erik Larson has been widely acclaimed as a master of narrative non-fiction, and in his new book, the bestselling author of Devil in the White City turns his hand to a remarkable story set during Hitler's rise to power.
The time is 1933, the place, Berlin, when William E. Dodd becomes America's first ambassador to Hitler's Germany in a year that proved to be a turning point in history.
A mild-mannered professor from Chicago, Dodd brings along his wife, son, and flamboyant daughter, Martha. At first Martha is entranced by the parties and pomp, and the handsome young men of the Third Reich with their infectious enthusiasm for restoring Germany to a position of world prominence. Enamored of the "New Germany," she has one affair after another, including with the suprisingly honorable first chief of the Gestapo, Rudolf Diels. But as evidence of Jewish persecution mounts, confirmed by chilling first-person testimony, her father telegraphs his concerns to a largely indifferent State Department back home. Dodd watches with alarm as Jews are attacked, the press is censored, and drafts of frightening new laws begin to circulate. As that first year unfolds and the shadows deepen, the Dodds experience days full of excitement, intrigue, romance--and ultimately, horror, when a climactic spasm of violence and murder reveals Hitler's true character and ruthless ambition.
Suffused with the tense atmosphere of the period, and with unforgettable portraits of the bizarre Göring and the expectedly charming--yet wholly sinister--Goebbels, In the Garden of Beasts lends a stunning, eyewitness perspective on events as they unfold in real time, revealing an era of surprising nuance and complexity. The result is a dazzling, addictively readable work that speaks volumes about why the world did not recognize the grave threat posed by Hitler until Berlin, and Europe, were awash in blood and terror.
Includes bibliographical references (p. [631]-651) and index.
Das Vorspiel -- The man behind the curtain -- Into the wood -- House hunting in the Third Reich -- Lucifer in the garden -- How the skeleton arches -- Disquiet -- Berlin at dusk -- When everything changed -- The queer bird in exile -- "Table talk."
Documents the efforts of the first American ambassador to Hitler's Germany, William E. Dodd, to acclimate to a residence in an increasingly violent city where he is forced to associate with the Nazis while his daughter pursues a relationship with Gestapo chief Rudolf Diels.