.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 Goring 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.
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