Product Description

As seen on BBC1's PAGE TURNERS

The inspiration for the Oscar Nominated Film, DOWNFALL

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #76306 in Books
• Published on: 2005-02-04
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

Sunday Times
'unputdownable'

Observer
'Nobody has written a better account'

Craig Brown, Mail On Sunday
'vivid and creepy, as well as darkly comic'

Customer Reviews

Solid account
This publication is a solid account of those last days. The days when the Gross Deutches Reich, once spanning most of Europe, was not much bigger than the city of Berlin. Naturally it is becoming difficult to cover this important chapter in European history from a new angle. This said the author would appear to have managed it.

Very readable and gripping narrative
An immensely readable short book about the fall of Hitler and the Third Reich. Fest's writing style is perfect for the non-specialist and his analysis of Hitler as a wholly new phenomenon in world history in terms of sheer mania for destruction without purpose is clear and convincing.

Vivid historical narrative
A vivid account of the events at the end of Hitler's life.

Margot Bettauer Dembo's excellent translation conveys Fest's straightforward style to great effect. Fest is very good on Hitler's need to destroy, but he also paints a not altogether unsympathetic picture of a man in physical, moral and mental decline, with a continuous tremor and a prodigious appetite for cake. The latter detail is typical of those throughout the book which make infamous characters more "human" for the general reader for whom this book is intended.

Fest is particularly good on the nature of history and its interpretation and on how difficult it can be to unravel the truth behind even recent events, as different interested parties seek to place a different spin on them.

As other reviewers have said, this book is probably a good starting point for those unfamiliar with the subject, rather than a reference work for the expert. As such, it represents a very worthy addition to the recent genre of vivid historical narrative.