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An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris

by  euclid

Posted: Thursday, May 7, 2015
Word Count: 177
Summary: Brilliant book - more history than fiction




This is the story of Alfred Dreyfus, an officer in the French Army who, in 1894, was falsely accused of treason and sent to Devil's Island. Dreyfus was a Jew, which explains - at least in part - why he fell foul of the justice system in France.
 
Robert Harris never fails to amaze me. I have devoured all but one of his novels as well as his non-fiction "Selling Hitler". What amazes me most is his scholarship, his capacity for hard work and attention to detail, and his literary prowess. Historical fiction comes in various flavours: on a spectrum from fictionalised pure history to pure fiction set against a historical background. We might also include many works of pure fantasy that contain vestiges of historical echoes. As a work of alternative history, Fatherland sits at the fantastical end of the spectrum; An Officer and a Spy sits firmly at the other end. This is pure historical journalism imbued with fiction to bring the story to life for the modern reader. The book is a triumph.

10/10