Posted on December 16, 2009 by Nayab Naseer

Fatherland, authored by Robert Harris is set in a fictional world where the Nazis have won the World War II and managed to capture Russia upto the Urals, and bring Western Europe under its hegemony. A Cold War exists between United States and Germany.

Xavier March, a member of the Kripo, the lowest ranking SS service sets out to investigate a murder. The corpse transpires to be that of Josef Buhler, a Nazi veteran who had joined the party along with Hitler in 1921. Powerful forces want to murder investigation closed as suicide, but march would have none of it. He teams up with Charlie Magurie, a young and beautiful American journalist and starts unearthing a deadly conspiracy related to the mass murder in Poland during the Second World War. March’s findings would derail the possible German – United States friendship and for this reason powerful forces set out to harm March.

Much of this novel is drab descriptions that would put off any reader in normal circumstances. The fact that the book is set in a what would have been frame raises the curiosity of the reader and makes for an interesting reading. Though there is nothing special to write about the plot, the characterization and the descriptions of a make believe world seem grounded in reality and accounts for the immense popularity this book received.