Munich - The Edge of War - Robert Harris - Book Review

 

                    There are few authors whom we would have come across often but never thought of giving a try at their books. Robert Harris was one such author. Having come across his books each time during my visit to the library, this time I definitely had to try it out, and what better than this book. Moreover, anything related to History and World War 2 has always been a subject of immense interest to me.

                    Hitler plans to go to war with the Czechs over a portion of their country which is majorly populated by the Sudetan Germans. The British especially PM Chamberlain want to avert such a situation as there is fear of an imminent war in England. Hugh, one of the junior secretaries to the PM receives a piece of information from unknown sources which might be of utmost importance. Meanwhile, Paul Hoffmann who works in Germany, an old collegemate and friend of Hugh gets possession of a document that can help the Hitler opposers in Germany to get some support from the Brits. When the leaders plan for a meeting in Germany, the two friends travel with their respective leaders where Paul tries to bring home the message to Brits via Hugh and Hugh meanwhile tries to uncover the truth about the information he received. Can the secrets have an impact on the leader and imminent war? Will a war be averted?

                    I expected a rather slow read where I might have to spend time getting facts straightened out. But interestingly, the book turns out to be a very fast-paced one. For me, it was an edge-of-a-seat thriller and the depth of the characters was rather impressive. This is not a total work of fiction. I feel the way Robert Harris has woven fiction with non-fiction is where his work stands out compared to other historical or world war fiction I had read. The details of the Brit PM and his tirade for peace were well brought out. One man's love for war and another man's effort at keeping peace are well depicted. The conversation that Paul has with Hugh when they met after so long during the meeting and the time they spent together was shown strongly but in a subtle way. Reading history through a fiction book rather than a non-fiction one was a different experience (in a good way).  I was happy to see that many of the facts were true, since I went back to exploring the correct facts after finishing the book and the book did cover many. Equally good was Robert's writing style.

                    To sum up, a very short and exciting read for history lovers. A well-depicted insight into the geo-political situations of the main two nations during the period of time. I will be adding Robert Harris books to my TBR list.