Look Who’s Back By Timur Vermes [2014]

Category: General Fiction, Humor
Language: English
Keywords: Berlin German Literature Hitler Satire
Written by Timur Vermes
Read by Julian Rhind-Tutt
Format: MP3
Unabridged

Berlin, Summer 2011. Adolf Hitler wakes up on a patch of open ground, alive and well. Things have changed - no Eva Braun, no Nazi party, no war. Hitler barely recognizes his beloved Fatherland, filled with immigrants and run by a woman. People certainly recognize him, albeit as a flawless impersonator who refuses to break character. The unthinkable, the inevitable happens, and the ranting Hitler goes viral, becomes a YouTube star, gets his own TV show, and people begin to listen. But the Fuhrer has another program with even greater ambition - to set the country he finds a shambles back to rights.

Look Who’s Back stunned and then thrilled 1.5 million German readers with its fearless approach to the most taboo of subjects. Naive yet insightful, repellent yet strangely sympathetic, the revived Hitler unquestionably has a spring in his step.

Jamie Bulloch has produced a superb, demotic translation while Julian Rhind-Tutt’s reading is beyond marvelous, slipping between the clipped and suddenly furious voice of the Fuhrer and the laid-back tones of the casually savvy Berliners.

Both funny and frightening, this is a subtle, historical study of the commanding nature of the fanatical demagogue, as well as a savage critique of contemporary western culture. It is a powerful and important book.