In the Garden of Beasts - by Erik Larson

About the Book

The time is 1933, the place, Berlin, when William E. Dodd becomes America's first ambassador to Hitler's 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. Written by the bestselling author of "Devil in the White City, 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.

Book Synopsis

"Larson is a marvelous writer...superb at creating characters with a few short strokes."--New York Times Book Review

Erik Larson has been widely acclaimed as a master of narrative non-fiction, and in his new book, the bestselling author of Devil in the White City turns his hand to 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 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.

Review Quotes

By far his best and most enthralling work of novelistic history....Powerful, poignant...a transportingly true story.--The New York Times

Tells a fascinating story brilliantly well.--Financial Times

Highly compelling...Larson brings Berlin roaring to life in all its glamour and horror...a welcome new chapter in the vast canon of World War II.--Christian Science Monitor

Terrific.--Los Angeles Times

"A stunning work of history."--Newsweek

"Larson has meticulously researched the Dodds' intimate witness to Hitler's ascendancy and created an edifying narrative of this historical byway that has all the pleasures of a political thriller....a fresh picture of these terrrible events."--The New York Times Book Review

Larson has taken a brilliant idea and turned it into a gripping book.--Women's Wear Daily

Harrowingly suspenseful. Vogue.com

A gripping, deeply-intimate narrative with a climax that reads like the best political thriller, where we are stunned with each turn of the page.--Louisville Courier Journal

Electrifying reading...fascinating. Minneapolis Star-Tribune

"Larson's latest chronicle of history has as much excitement as a thriller novel, and it's all the more thrilling because it's all true."--Asbury Park Press

A superb book...nothing less than masterful.--Toronto Globe and Mail

"Even though we know how it will end -- the book's climax, the Night of the Long Knives, being just the beginning, this is a page-turner, full of flesh and blood people and monsters too, whose charms are particularly disturbing."--Portland Herald

Larson succeeds brilliantly...offers a fascinating window into the year when the world began its slow slide into war.--Maclean's Magazine

Erik Larson tackles this outstanding period of history as fully and compellingly as he portrayed the events in his bestseller, THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY. With each page, more horrors are revealed, making it impossible to put down. IN THE GARDEN OF BEASTS reads like the true thriller it is.--BookReporter.com

Larson's strengths as a storyteller have never been stronger than they are here, and this story is far more important than either The Devil in the White City or Thunderstruck. How the United States dithered as Hitler rose to power is a cautionary tale that bears repeating, and Larson has told it masterfully.--Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Reads like an elegant thriller...utterly compelling... marvelous stuff. An excellent and entertaining book that deserves to be a bestseller, and probably will be."--The Washington Post

"Larson's scholarship is impressive, but it's his pacing and knack for suspense that elevates the book from the matter-of-fact to the sublime."--Pittsburgh Review

"A master at writing true tales as riveting as fiction."--People (3 1/2 stars)

Larson has done it again, expertly weaving together a fresh new narrative from ominous days of the 20th century.--Associated Press

Mesmerizing...cinematic, improbable yet true.--Philadelphia Inquirer

[L]ike slipping slowly into a nightmare, with logic perverted and morality upended....It all makes for a powerful, unsettling immediacy.--Bruce Handy, Vanity Fair

"Dazzling....Reads like a suspense novel, replete with colorful characters, both familiar and those previously relegated to the shadows. Like Christopher Isherwood's Berlin Stories or Victor Klemperer's Diaries, IN THE GARDEN OF BEASTS is an on-the-ground documentary of a society going mad in slow motion.--The Chicago Sun-Times

"[G]ripping, a nightmare narrative of a terrible time. It raises again the question never fully answered about the Nazi era--what evil humans are capable of, and what means are necessary to cage the beast."--The Seattle Times

In this mesmerizing portrait of the Nazi capital, Larson plumbs a far more diabolical urban cauldron than in his bestselling The Devil in the White City...a vivid, atmospheric panorama of the Third Reich and its leaders, including murderous Nazi factional infighting, through the accretion of small crimes and petty thuggery.--Publishers Weekly(Starred Review)

Praise for Erik Larson

THUNDERSTRUCK
"A ripping yarn of murder and invention."--Los Angeles Times

"Larson's gift for rendering an historical era with vibrant tactility and filling it with surprising personalities makes Thunderstruck an irresistible tale."--The Washington Post Book World

"Gripping....An edge-of-the-seat read."--People

DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY
"[Larson] relentlessly fuses history and entertainment to give this nonfiction book the dramatic effect of a novel....a dynamic, enveloping book."
--The New York Times

"A hugely engrossing chronicle of events public and private. Exceedingly well-documented, exhaustive without being excessive, and utterly fascinating."
--Chicago Tribune

"An irresistible page-turner that reads like the most compelling, sleep-defying fiction."--Time Out New York

ISAAC'S STORM
"A gripping account...fascinating to its core, and all the more compelling for being true."--New York Times Book Review

"Superb...Larson has made the Great Hurricane live again."--The Wall Street Journal

"Gripping....The Jaws of hurricane yarns."--Newsday

About The Author

ERIK LARSON is the author of the national bestsellers Thunderstruck, The Devil in the White City, and Isaac's Storm. ErikLarsonBooks.com