Munich: A Novel

There are few authors as adept as Robert Harris in writing excellent historical fiction. This is true whether he is writing about ancient Rome, the contemporary Vatican, or as here, Hitler's Germany. In large measure this is true for two reasons: first, he does extensive research so that every page sparkles with authenticity; second, he is just a remarkable storyteller. His great talents are well on display in this novel set during the 1938 Munich big four talks where Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain is remembered for declaring "peace in our time" had emerged.Harris faces particular challenges in setting his story with the Munich conference as the background. Munich has been studied and dissected by so many historians, that it is very well known in its most minute details. Harris is so able to fit his fictional story into this framework that it is often difficult to know what is history and what is fictional--one mark of superior historical fiction. The key characters, one a young British diplomat (Hugh Legat), the other his German counterpart, were friends years before while at Oxford. Each is fluent in both English and German. Harris takes us into his reconstruction of meetings within Chamberlain's advisers as war appears likely, as he does for strategy sessions within Hitler's inner circle. The German,Paul von Hartmann, apparently is a member of the dissident group that will eventually try to kill Hitler in 1944. He has sent a highly incriminating document of Hitler's plans for Europe to Legat, so he may show it to the PM before any decisions are made at the conference.Legat is too junior to justify a meeting with the PM; but he is added to the team going to Munich. Hartmann himself set to attend the conference plans to hook up with Legat and get the document to Chamberlain. Their efforts to accomplish this goal right in the middle on tight German security adds a note of suspense and tension. Harris keeps all the events going on well structured so the reader does not get lost in the flurry. I will not spoil the story by recounting what the PM does when he finally reads the document.Harris creates a last-minute private meeting between Hitler and Chamberlain just before the PM flies back to London. I don't know if such a meeting in fact did occur. But in the novel, Hitler and the PM sigh off on the famous document that Chamberlain displays on his return that he asserts creates "peace in our time," which of course soon became obvious that it did nothing of the kind, leading to Chamberlain's fall and the installation of Churchill as PM. One interesting aspect of the novel is that Harris treats Chamberlain with kid gloves--he is always polite and a more skillful writer than history suggests. While the book is no "page turner" which the reader cannot stop reading until the conclusion, it is pretty suspenseful at points and holds the reader's interest throughout its 303 pages.Frequently, historical fiction writers have "afterwords" where they explain what was true and what is part of their story. That is not the case here and I think it would have been helpful. Harris in his acknowledgements lists the books he relied upon, which attest to his extensive research. He also wrote a non-fiction book about Hitler and worked on a 1988 documentary commemorating the 50th anniversary of Munich. So he is well versed in this topic and it shows. A fine novel that also allows the reader to learn a bit of history about one of the most important developments in the 20th century.

Harris's novel recounts the events surrounding the 1938 Munich Agreement. The book is a real page turner despite its historically based predictable ending. The introduction of two fictional characters adds tension to the event. One character is an Englishman with His Majesty's Diplomatic Service, very loosely based on David Astor. The other, a fellow classmate of the Englishman at Oxford, is with the German Foreign Ministry and more closely based on the life of the anti-Nazi, Adam von Trott zu Solz. During the tedious and lengthy four days ofmeetings surrounding the drafting of the agreement, there is a lot of intrigue involving these two young men.This book sheds a new light on the Prime Minister of Britain, Neville Chamberlain. Chastised by most historians as the great "appeaser" of Hitler, it reveals that Chamberlain wanted to avoid another word war at any cost. He would literally do anything, including abetting the annexation of the Sudetenland by Hitler in order to prevent another world conflict. For awhile, it seemed to be working, but then Hitler proved by his bellicose actions that he was not to be trusted.Finally, the story highlights how unprepared Britain was to take on a major military conflict. Very little had been done for twenty years since the end of WWI to rebuild and modernize the army, navy and air force and to construct land fortifications like anti-aircraft guns against future bombing raids. This unpreparedness weighed heavily on Chamberlain's mind and also guided his conduct during the Munich conference.The late night "joy" ride of the two fictional characters to Dachau and a nursing home seems to be a bit of a stretch. Nevertheless, this novel provides an entertaining historical refresher course as the 80th anniversary of the drafting of the Munich Agreement approaches.

Well written, full of captivating details, but not much of a thriller. A low level diplomatic civil servant, Legat, is given documents to prove Hitler’s desire for war while signing agreements for peace with Chamberlain, the then British Prime minister. Hartmann, himself a German diplomat, is an old schoolmate from Oxford, and an active member of the clandestine opposition to the nazis.Legat and Hartmann revealed the document to Chamberlain on the eve of a public peace declaration, agreeing to give the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia to Germany. In exchange for peace. The story then cuts short, leaving us knowing Legat will resign from the service to enter the Royal Air Force, while Hartmann will go on as an opponent to Hitler and will eventually hang for it after a plot to kill Hitler fails.We are left at that at the end of the book. Material for a follow up book? It better be, because the reader if left with a draft for a sequel. I am a big fan of Robert Harris, but this book is not a very satisfying read.

O autor relata um tempo histórico do começo da segunda guerra, onde os Ingleses fizeram um grande esforço para evitar a guerra.O autor retrata bem estes períodos tumultuado

If you have an obsession with the wars or if you wanna relive history.. read this! It’s just brilliant! 👌

Spedizione velocissima, prodotto impeccabile

I have always liked his historical recreations, but this one is the best of all. Sadly the "munich" syndrome appears to have resurfaced in the world of today...

Robert Harris is one of my favourite authors in the faction (= documentary fiction) category. He writes about real historical events but creates a plot which makes them more alive and prevents you from knowing everything beforehand. In this case Harris retells the famous Munich "peace for our time" capitulation when Hitler still could have been stopped - maybe. All the important protagonists are there with their own names, except some invented minor actors, like the main character, the most junior private secretary of Chamberlain, Hugh Legat. Even his German counterpart and co-conspirator, Paul Hartmann is based on a real historical character who was executed after the failed attempt at Hitler's life in 1944.In the case of Munich, the timeline is only a few days, from Chamberlain's failed attempt to get Hitler to accept a delay so that Czechoslovakia could organize a plebiscite, to the signing of the Munich agreement and the euphoria of Chamberlain's return. Most of the action takes place in the fringes, like the failure to arrest Hitler (which depended on the refusal of the British and the French to accept the agreement so that Hitler would decide to attack), the attempt to get Chamberlain to see documents which showed clearly Hitler's true intentions as well as a lot of technical stuff about translating, typing and communicating. The main historical figures are described a bit more in detail and the portrait of Chamberlain is quite symphathetic. He is described as a person who is extremely unwilling to take the risk of leading Britain into a war when the previous one was only 20 years away. This puts him in a very difficult position when the opponent is a person who is all too willing to get into war, even though his generals believe that it is much too early (but who are ready to start a war a bit later). It was probably too late already in 1938 to stop Hitler, but that is impossible to know. The friendship between the two main characters, Hugh and Paul, dives the book an extra dimension. The details are interesting: Munich in 1938, during the Oktoberfest, Hitler's special train, the atmosphere in the German foreign ministry and the much more cramped surroundings of the 10 Downing Street. Less so the failed marriage of Hugh, which is an unnecessary English trope (coming from Le Carré and others).The productivity of Harris is impressive, so impressive that one would think that he is being used a model of Philip Kerr (see my review of Research) of a famous and extremely productive author, but at least in the book, there is no hint that Harris would be using ghostwriters. In any case, his books are extremely readable and fascinating for the historically inclined who does not want to wade through long historical tomes. The only thing is that it takes a lot to time to produce a new book (several month's in Harris's case) whereas it takes just a few hours of intense reading to get through it, So there should actually be a factory producing monthly Harris books to keep us readers happy!