Ronald Beek Libri

Fatherland è ambientato in un mondo che non è mai esistito ma che fu sul punto di esistere: la Berlino che Albert Speer aveva progettato per Hitler. Siamo nel 1964: la Germania ha vinto la guerra, l'Impero tedesco si estende dal Reno agli Urali, Hitler sta per compiere 75 anni, e il presidente americano Joseph Kennedy annuncia una visita a Berlino per negoziare la distensione. Ma l'Impero scricchiola: disillusione negli ideali del Partito, irrequietudine delle minoranze, violenza, corruzione. In una fredda mattina di aprile, il corpo di un gerarca nazista affiora da un lago negli eleganti sobborghi residenziali. Delitto o morte accidentale? A indagare sul caso è Xavier March della polizia criminale di Berlino: un brillante investigatore, senza simpatie politiche ma fortemente motivato dal bisogno di conoscere meglio la società in cui vive. Comincia così, con un'indagine destinata a portare lontano e a tenere incollato il lettore dalla prima all'ultima pagina, uno dei più originali e affascinanti romanzi di suspence degli ultimi anni. Già diventato evento internazionale, Fatherland ha istantaneamente proiettato Robert Harris nel ristretto gruppo di autori, da Forsyth a le Carré, che hanno ridefinito e ampliato i confini del thriller.

The bestselling author of The Genesis Code and The Eighth Day now strikes his most harrowing chord, with a chilling novel that pushes suspense to nearly inhuman limits. As a television news correspondent, Alex Callahan has traveled to some of the most dangerous corners of the globe, covering famine, plague, and war. He’s seen more than his share of blood and death, and knows what it means to be afraid. But what he’s never known is the terror that grabs him when, on a tranquil summer afternoon, he ceases to be an observer of the dark side and, to his shock, becomes enmeshed in it. Separated from his wife, and struggling not to become a stranger to his six-year-old twin sons, Alex is logging some all-too-rare quality time with the boys, when they vanish without a trace amid the hurly-burly of a countryside Renaissance Fair. Then the phone call comes. A chilling silence; slow, steady breathing; and the familiar, plaintive voice of a child–“Daddy?”–complete the nightmare . . . and set in motion a juggernaut of frenzy and agony. The longer the police search, exhausting leads without success, the deeper Alex’s certainty grows that time is running out. And when, at last, telltale signs reveal a hidden pattern of bizarre and ghoulish abductions, Alex vows to use his own relentless investigative skills to rescue his children from the shadowy figure dubbed The Piper. Whoever this elusive stranger is, the profile that slowly emerges–from previous crimes involving twins, from the zealously secret world of professional magicians, and from the eerie culture of voodoo–suggests that The Piper is a predator unlike any other. A twisted soul hell-bent on fulfilling an unspeakably dark dream. A fiend with a terrifying true calling. What Alex Callahan is closing in on is a monster with a mission.

For the last four years the town of Goodlands has been stricken by drought. When bank manager Karen sees a television interview with a man who claims he can make it rain, she writes to him in desperation. He turns up on her doorstep over a year later, dusty and dishevelled, demanding his money.