- The Berkut
Infobox Book |
name = The Berkut
title_orig =
translator =
image_caption =
author =Joseph Heywood
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country =United States
language = English
series =
genre =Alternate history , HistoricalThriller novel
publisher =Random House
pub_date = 1987
english_pub_date =
media_type = Print (Hardback &Paperback )
pages = 489 pp
isbn = ISBN 0394560884
oclc =
preceded_by =
followed_by ="The Berkut" is a 1987 alternate history novel by Joseph Heywood in which
Adolf Hitler survives World War II. It is set in the period right after the fall of the Third Reich. This book pits a German colonel and a Russian soldier from a secret organization against each other. The German, Gunter Brumm, wants to save the Fuhrer and Petrov, the Russian wants him to be captured.Plot introduction
A few facts are clear bent in this narrative and a double, not Hitler, died under the Chancellery. Stalin orders his top agent to grab Hitler and bring him back to the Kremlin. Hitler, known in the novel as "Herr Wolf", escapes across Europe in the company of two SS commandos.
Plot
The novel begins in the final days of Nazi Germany with Hitler sheltering in his bunker. Hitler officially commits suicide along with Eva Braun. However, after Eva kills herself, a preselected double takes Hitler's place and is disposed of along with Braun in the Chancellery yard for the Russians to find. The real Hitler escapes the bunker along with Colonel Gunther Brumm, a German commando officer and together with a rag tag team, escape Berlin.
Stalin meanwhile has intuitively deduced that the psychological make-up of Hitler is not that of a man who would commit suicide. Hence he sets up a special team of five operatives with wide ranging powers to round up Hitler and bring him back for Stalin's personal revenge plan.
The novel takes off on a thrilling chase of ruthless cat and mouse whereby Hitler and his protectors are shown fleeing towards the Vatican (where they have been promised sanctuary) and the Russian team in hot pursuit.
The Russians ultimately catch hold of Hitler and bring him back to Stalin. Hitler is imprisoned in a hanging cage in a sub-basement of the Kremlin which is too small for Hitler to either stand or lie fully. He is fed scraps through the bars of the cage and allowed no toilet facilities. Over the years, Hitler changes to a filthy, senile beast who has his right leg amputated above the knee and his left leg amputated above the ankle as gangrene sets in. He is ultimately executed by Petrov when Stalin is on his death bed.
Literary significance and reception
The New York Times reviews this novel::"Joseph Heywood's second novel isn't your run-of-the-mill Nazi-hunting twaddle." [cite web | title=In Short: Fiction | last=Kellerman | first=Stewart | work=NYTimes reviews | url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE5DF153DF93AA15752C1A961948260 | date=November 29, 1987 | accessdate=2008-03-27 ]
Footnotes
References
*cite book |last=Rosenfeld |first=Gavriel D. |title=The World Hitler Never Made: Alternate History and the Memory of Nazism |year=2005 |publisher=
Cambridge University Press |isbn=0521847060 |pages=p. 242
*cite web | title=The Berkut publishing | last= | first= | work=FantasticFiction | url=http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/h/joseph-heywood/berkut.htm | date= | accessdate=2008-03-27
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