In the Garden of Beasts

Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin

By: Erik Larson

Narrated by: Stephen Hoye

Length: 12 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

Erik Larson has been widely acclaimed as a master of narrative non-fiction, and in his new book, the best-selling 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 Göring 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 listenable 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.

©2011 Stephen Hoye (P)2011 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"In this mesmerizing portrait of the Nazi capital, Larson plumbs a far more diabolical urban cauldron than in his bestselling The Devil in the White City... a vivid, atmospheric panorama of the Third Reich and its leaders, including murderous Nazi factional infighting, through the accretion of small crimes and petty thuggery." ( Publishers Weekly)

"By far his best and most enthralling work of novelistic history….Powerful, poignant…a transportingly true story." ( The New York Times)

"[L]ike slipping slowly into a nightmare, with logic perverted and morality upended….It all makes for a powerful, unsettling immediacy." (Bruce Handy, Vanity Fair)

most interesting

a piece of unknown history. very interesting and instructive. i recommend warmly to read it

Exceptionally well written...

The author writes about how incredibly hot the summertime weather was back in the mid 30s... So much for the global warming phenomenon being caused by human activity...

An interesting perspective

There are so many WW2 books that another one tends to get passed over easily but don't.

Seeing the buildup of Germany prior to WWII through Ambassador Dodds eyes where his background helped him see the Nazi party more clearly than his colleagues. Contrasting that with his daughters experience of being young in a new country. Who herself had quite an interesting life makes for a new take on a topic done to death.

Incredible look into 1930’s Berlin

Great narration of an extremely well-written account! Details of the Third Reich in pre-war Germany as seen by the American Ambassador. Gripping, astounding in parts, and full of info unknown to me. I actually re-listened to numerous chapters after finishing the whole to process and absorb the information more completely! Can’t wait to see Tom Hanks in the movie version.

The US Ambassador to Germany 1933-36

FDR plucks a Chicago history professor to be ambassador to Germany, just months after Hitler becomes Chancellor. The book follows the ambassador and his family, particularly his romantically adventurous daughter, as they experience Nazism taking firm hold, climaxing in the Night of Long Knives. The story Peters out after that event, but Larson spins the tale in his usual engrossing manner, illuminating a critical period, and the failure of the US and other democracies to appreciate the threat Hitler posed.

History lover

What a book. E. Larson does not disappoint with this dynamic, intriguing story that keeps you turning pages.

Glimpse into History

A very interesting piece of history and background into the events leading up to World War II. This history is important because history has a way of repeating itself in spite of the warnings of those not caught in the propaganda of those willing to do “anything” to get or stay in power. Highly recommend this book for those interested and committed to democracy instead of being autocrats / personal power.

A decent footnote

I loved his Lusitania book, but this was a relative disappointment. I’m glad the history is captured but it was slow going.

Must read

This is another book that you will not be able to put down. It has a very interesting story, and just all around great book. 

I loved it ... and hated it ... simultaneously

I have rarely been more conflicted about a book than I am about this one. In many ways it was gripping and sometimes mesmerizing and then again, it was also annoying and at the same time, utterly appalling.

The indifference and callously entrenched anti-Semitism of US State Department officials and their consequent tolerance for the atrocities of the Nazi government is hard to stomach.This is not an image of our government that could make anyone proud to be an American.

The failure of all the western nations to do anything to stop Hitler while they could -- with relative ease -- have done so is difficult to fathom. The feather-headed self-absorption of Dodd's daughter is like a case of hives: the more you scratch, the more you itch.

Most of the people in the book are awful in one way or another. Dodd, the ambassador, ultimately grows to become, in his way, heroic. He, at least, saw what was happening and tried -- within the scope of his position -- to do what he could. That no one listened to him is part of the heartbreak.

Worse is that those who failed to act more often than not did so NOT because they didn't believe him (although some really didn't), but because the majority of them were hardened anti-Semites and/or because they thought Hitler was going to rid Europe of the menace of Communism. Hitler as the lesser of two evils? How revolting is that? And all of this led to the bloodiest war in human history, a conflict wherein more than 30 million people died.

The banality of evil has never been more obvious or more terrifying. Read it and weep.