Erik Larson says in the prologue “Once, at the dawn of a very dark time, an American father and daughter found themselves suddenly transported from their snug home in Chicago to the heart of Hitler’s Berlin. They remained there for four and a half years, but it is their first year that is the subject of the story to follow, for it coincided with Hitler’s ascent from chancellor to absolute tyrant, when everything hung in the balance and nothing was certain. That first year formed a kind of prologue in which all the themes of the greater epic of war and murder soon to come were laid down.”
“I have always wondered what it would have been like for an outsider to have witness firsthand the gathering dark of Hitler’s rule.”
Known for his previous books,
Thunderstruck, The Devil in the White City, and
Isaac’s Storm,
In the Garden of Beasts gives an eyewitness view of Hitler’s rise to power. Website:
http://eriklarsonbooks.com/
1 comment:
This book is haunting proof that people will do anything not to see what they don't want to see. In this case, an idealistic, Jeffersonian college professor is appointed American ambassador to Berlin in the early 1930s. His truthfulness and statesmanship are admirable, and he truly believes that, if people entirely understood the Great War, there would be no more wars on earth. But he is dealing with the Third Reich, which doesn't ascribe to his high ideals, all the while assuring him that it does.
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