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)

Disturbing account of Hitler's early impact

Taken from the diaries of the American Ambassador to Germany during the early 1930's, this book weaves the painful truth of the transformation into Nazi control, the effect it had on the Ambassador's "adventurous" daughter, and the willful blindness of the Roosevelt Presidency.

Extremely compelling and very well written and narrated.

A Great Way to Learn History

Erik Larson's books always make me think and look for some of the historical references.The story is engaging, especially when looking back at it in historical context.Mr. Larson makes the characters engaging and gives them life.

There are a lot of different players so keeping track is a challenge.

If you like history you will like this book.The narration is well paced.

If you enjoy diplomatic bureaucracy

and petty gossip of correspondents and diplomats, then this book may appeal to you. It never really want anywhere and I never felt like I was transported to pre-WW2 Germany. It is a snapshot in time but a rather washed out snapshot, I was hoping for vibrant kodochrome.

Fascinating story

Larson writes very well of parallel stories - in this case the story of how Hitler entrenched his power in Nazi Germany and the story of Martha Dodd, daughter of the American ambassador to Germany and her playgirl behavior. It was a compelling book to listen to, and the time went by quickly.

Great Story of unknown historical figures

If you could sum up In the Garden of Beasts in three words, what would they be?

Fascinating Unkown History

Who was your favorite character and why?

I didn't attach to any figures as they were either weak on the American side or insane on the Nazi side.

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

first time...great voice but it did get a little annoying after a while

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

American in Nazi Germany

Any additional comments?

It is amazing to listen to the beliefs of the period. It is difficult to fall in love with any person in this book as they all were flawed in a sense.

interesting work

this is a very interesting piece of history, reconstructed in a sort of novel form. as such, it suffers from the constraints of adhering to facts, but it provides a "witness"insight into a critical period of contemporary history. very interesting. the reader is excellent.

a story thats hard to believe

A fascinating story with tremendous level of detail. while i didn't love the narrator, looking back on these historic events are remarkable .

Good experience for my first audiobook

Like Larson's "Devil in a White City" I struggled with lack of interest in some of the story lines. I enjoyed the thorough history through "slice of life" perspective of the rise of Hitler (a topic that I had not previously studied in my extensive WWII reading). I did not care for the excessive infighting in the diplomatic core. This was also my first foray into audiobooks and found that listening to portions that i was not fully enjoying was much easier than reading through them... I will definitely be using audiobooks for nonfiction reading again... Particularly because it turns my commute and exercise time into learning time.

Chilling

This account of the rise of Nazi power made my hair stand on end at times. Frightening. Evil.

Sadly, I'm not sure that humanity has learned the lessons of that time, of history.

This book is a must read.

Extraordinary

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes.

Any additional comments?

Very moving. Erik Larsen has a gift for breathing life into history's unsung heroes and lending dimension to it's well-known villains. Beautifully told. I understand there's a film in development. I SO hope it gets made, and made well enough to do the book justice.