Erik Larson, New York Times bestselling author of Devil in the White City, delivers 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 Nazi 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.
- Always Available Adult Fiction eBooks
- Always Available Adult Nonfiction eBooks
- Most Popular Adult Fiction eBooks in 2022
- Most Popular Adult Nonfiction eBooks in 2022
- Mystery eBooks
- Science Fiction eBooks
- Fantasy eBooks
- History eBooks
- Most Popular Adult Fiction eBooks 2023
- Most Popular Adult Nonfiction eBooks 2023
- See all
- Always Available Adult Fiction Audiobooks
- Always Available Adult Nonfiction eBooks
- Most Popular Adult Fiction Audiobooks in 2022
- Most Popular Adult Nonfiction Audiobooks in 2022
- Mystery Audiobooks
- Biography and Autobiography Audiobooks
- Business Audiobooks
- Listening to History
- ZORA Canon: Greatest books by African American Women
- Most Popular Adult Fiction Audiobooks 2023
- See all
- Food and Drink
- Health and Fitness
- Special Issues
- Seasonal Special Issues
- Most Popular Magazine Titles 2023
- See all