HHhH: A Novel

By Laurent Binet

Book Overview

HHhH: "Himmlers Hirn heisst Heydrich," or "Himmler's brain is called Heydrich." The most dangerous man in Hitler's cabinet, Reinhard Heydrich was known as the "Butcher of Prague." He was feared by all and loathed by most. With his cold Aryan features and implacable cruelty, Heydrich seemed indestructible--until two men, a Slovak and a Czech recruited by the British secret service, killed him in broad daylight on a bustling street in Prague, and thus changed the course of History. Who were these men, arguably two of the most discreet heroes of the twentieth century? In Laurent Binet's captivating debut novel, we follow Jozef Gabcik and Jan Kubis from their dramatic escape of Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia to England; from their recruitment to their harrowing parachute drop into a war zone, from their stealth attack on Heydrich's car to their own brutal death in the basement of a Prague church. A seemingly effortlessly blend of historical truth, personal memory, and Laurent Binet's remarkable imagination, HHhH --an international bestseller and winner of the prestigious Prix Goncourt du Premier Roman--is a work at once thrilling and intellectually engrossing, a fast-paced novel of the Second World War that is also a profound meditation on the nature of writing and the debt we owe to history. HHhH is one of The New York Times' Notable Books of 2012.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374169918
• ISBN13: 9780374169916
• Release Date: April 2012
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.06 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.4" x 1.1" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

Not a book for the simple

If you need a story to be spoon-fed to you in a linear, childlike manner, then avoid this book. There are a million books in the style of Max Hastings entitled "Operation so and so" but Binet does not set out to write one of those. His book is instead as much about the difficulties of historical research and a philosophical reflection on writing about real people as it is about the actual events that took place in the second World War. It takes a little while to understand his writing pattern, but once it is made one of the more interesting in the genre. He bounces between modernity as he learns more about the story and the actual history. He regularly plays with the cliches and tropes of the genre and messes with the reader. Personally, I found that this kept me engaged and on my toes. He reflects several times on how authors try to add dementia to what can easily be dead history, sometimes by engaging it and then walking it back. This seems to serve the purpose adding color without committing the faux pas of other authors. Binet is often both funny and insightful. His ability to poke at the flaws of his own French nation and unexpected thinking of his wit gives the book a fun flavor throughout. The non-linear nature, which some may find challenging to follow separates the book from the myriad of identical historical documentations and makes the book a joy to read.

If you don't know anything about historical research IT'S NOT FOR YOU

I love this book not just for the narrative of two WWII Czech and Slav heroes parachuting in to kill the Butcher of Prague but because of the way Binet writes in short segments, bouncing between past and present of writing the book and the villains, heroes, and bureaucrats of WWII. Anyone who has had to do research understands that a lot of choices have to be made about how much you have to lie to fill in the gaps when not all the data is present. It's sympathy. Additionally how the author writes doesn't hide behind fictionalization. Hundreds of thousands of people were executed by believers and opportunists, murders were systematically designed by brilliant fools, and the book shows just how cruel a mundane chauvinist looking for a promotion can be.

Awful!

Binet goes to extraordinary and sadly very successful lengths to make a book about World War 2 heroes instead about what a terrible author he is. He spends more pages whining about writing the book than actually telling the story. Truly one of the worst and, frankly, most embarrassing books I’ve ever read.