The Third Reich

A Novel

By: Roberto Bolaño, Natasha Wimmer - translator

Narrated by: Simon Vance

On vacation with his girlfriend, Ingeborg, the German war games champion Udo Berger returns to a small town on the Costa Brava where he spent the summers of his childhood. Soon they meet another vacationing German couple, Charly and Hanna, who introduce them to a band of locals—the Wolf, the Lamb, and El Quemado—and to the darker side of life in a resort town.

Late one night, Charly disappears without a trace, and Udo's well-ordered life is thrown into upheaval; while Ingeborg and Hanna return to their lives in Germany, he refuses to leave the hotel. Soon he and El Quemado are enmeshed in a round of Third Reich, Udo's favorite World War II strategy game, and Udo discovers that the game's consequences may be all too real.

Written in 1989 and found among Roberto Bolaño's papers after his death, The Third Reich is a stunning exploration of memory and violence. Reading this quick, visceral novel, we see a world-class writer coming into his own—and exploring for the first time the themes that would define his masterpieces The Savage Detectives and 2666.

Critic reviews

<p>“As a sharply observed chronicle of a man out of place in his own life and mind, it has a timelessness reminiscent of the best work of Christopher Isherwood. And that's nicely enhanced by Vance's cool, British-toned reading.” —<i>The Providence Sunday Journal</i><br><br>“Novelists tend to be remembered for their most remarkable characters, and in Udo Berger, Bolaño has created someone complex, sometimes frustrating and absolutely unforgettable . . . Compassionate, disturbing and deeply felt, [<i>The Third Reich </i>is] as much of a gift as anything the late author has given us.” —<i>Michael Schaub, NPR</i><br><br>“Bolaño was a writer with tricks up his sleeve, and he distributed his wiles across many genres: novellas, poetry, short stories, essays and the epic 1,100-page <i>2666</i>. So what's <i>The Third Reich</i> like? Capering, weird, rascally and short. Imagine a cross between Thomas Mann's <i>Death in Venice</i>, the CLUE board game and a wargames fanzine. It's a scathing novel with a lot of exuberance to it, not unlike the man who wrote it . . . <i>The Third Reich</i> is giddily funny, but it is also prickly and bizarre enough to count among Bolaño's first-rate efforts.” —<i>The Economist</i><br><br>“[Bolaño] makes you feel changed for having read him; he adjusts your angle of view on the world.” —<i>Ben Richards, The Guardian on Roberto Bolaño</i><br><br>“When I read Bolaño I think: Everything is possible again.” —<i>Nicole Krauss on Roberto Bolaño</i><br><br>“Not since Gabriel García Márquez . . . has a Latin American redrawn the map of world literature so emphatically as Roberto Bolaño does . . . It's no exaggeration to call him a genius.” —<i>Ilan Stavans, The Washington Post Book World on Roberto Bolaño</i><br><br>“[Bolaño's] work . . . is as vital, thrilling and life-enhancing as anything in modern fiction.” —<i>Christopher Goodwin, The Sunday Times (London) on Roberto Bolaño</i><br><br>“Novelists have been smashing high and low together for a century, but Bolaño does it with the force of a supercollider.” —<i>Daniel Zalewski, The New Yorker on Roberto Bolaño</i><br><br>“[Bolaño] has the natural storyteller's gift--but more important, he has the power to lend an extraordinary glamour to the activities of making love and making poetry.” —<i>Edmund White on Roberto Bolaño</i><br><br>“A successor to Borges, García Márquez, and Julio Cortázar.” —<i>Siddhartha Deb, Harper's Magazine on Roberto Bolaño</i><br><br>“The most influential and admired novelist of his generation.” —<i>Susan Sontag on Roberto Bolaño</i></p>

Great And Greatly Over My Head

What did you love best about The Third Reich?

Wondering what was going to happen.

Who was your favorite character and why?

They were all too weird to like.

Have you listened to any of Simon Vance’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Many. Mr. Vance's work is always perfect.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

No

Any additional comments?

This author is such a good writer. What he does is similar to slight of hand. I always came back to listen, just knowing that something really major was just about to happen. Even though it never did, I actually came away feeling as though I'd just listened to a really great book!

A gripping, fascinating mystery

What did you love best about The Third Reich?

The way it pulls you right in, and keeps you in a place you may never have been.

What did you like best about this story?

Atmosphere, characters, plots and how it sticks with you for days after you have finished it. And maybe parts of it, for the rest of your life.

What about Simon Vance’s performance did you like?

He never intrudes himself into the narrative.

If you could take any character from The Third Reich out to dinner, who would it be and why?

The Burned Man. And why? We can't talk until you've read the book.

Any additional comments?

Bolano is unpretentious, a fine story teller. If you like Graham Greene, Colm Toibin or Marques, you most likely wont want to miss Bolano.

Simon Vance's Siren voice kept me listening!

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

The story was a bit of a tease, building and building and then..... What made it worth my while was the reader. Mr. Vance brings the story to life in the mind.

What just happened? :D

I don't really know what to say. I loved how the main charachter develops and how the diary entries are mixed with game descriptions. I love the language and the "dialogue". I love this story, but I really don't know what happened and why and I couldn't care less, because this is all you need and all a story needs to keep the reader/listener in it's grip. I will very likely go through this again as I will and have done with Bolaño's other work.

I'm not sure what this reminds me of except it's written like its older than it is. A contemporary Goethe who shoots himself in the head just to be woken up/born again. So many bubbles burst. So many dicks teased. I highly recommend this for anyone who loves the mundane and who has ever lost interest or doubted their enthusiam with a subject someone else didn't understand :)

Pleasant and Strangely Funny

I find Bolano very funny in a dark way and a pleasant read. He is not one of my favorite authors, but I have liked (almost) everything I have read so far. His 2666 is one of the few novels I gave up on after only a handful of pages. Now that I see the subtly of Bolano’s off beat humor, I will likely give it another try.

Several of Bolano’s titles have Nazi related titles (my daughter became worried about my reading list). Rest assured Bolano is anti-Nazi. This book is about a strategy game modelling WWII. The book is dark and conflicted and funny in a strange and wonderful way. This is short and was both translated and published posthumously yet is quite decent.

I really liked the narration.

weird story with no real climax.

i read/listen to a lot of material/subjects and this one was out there, but not in a good way. if you can't find anything better, ok. but i will not read other materials from this author.

Yackety yackety yack

What disappointed you about The Third Reich?

This story could have been told three paragraphs, maybe four if the author insists on including the World War II war game.

Did Simon Vance do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

The narrator is, as usual, very good.

The disrespectful whiny characters.

This book was awful. The characters all came across as spoiled children. The story wasn’t compelling in the least. Little to no variation in character narration. It was an absolute chore to finish this one.