Berlin, 1964: Twenty years after Nazi Germany won World War II, Hitler's seventy-fifth birthday celebration is barely a week away. Good Germans throughout the Fatherland are looking forward to the big parades and festivals. Adding to the excitement: an announcement that President Joseph P. Kennedy will visit Berlin to initiate détente with the Third Reich.

Amid the hoopla, the body of a once important Nazi official washes up on a river bank — and Detective Xavier March has the bad luck to take the call. March is divorced, disaffected, and more than a little tired of his Nazi masters, but he's too good a cop to let his investigation drop — even after the all-powerful Gestapo orders him to desist. Putting his freedom — and his life — on the line, March enlists the aid of a beautiful American journalist. Together, they unravel a conspiracy that began during World War II and now threatens Hitler's deal with President Kennedy — and the very underpinnings of the Nazi regime.

Fatherland is a breathtaking tour de force, a novel that conjures up a painstakingly detailed and chillingly plausible world. What would have happened had Hitler won? Guerrilla warfare throughout the eastern Soviet Union. An eight-lane autobahn from Berlin to Moscow. England, France, Holland, and the other European countries governed by Nazi puppet regimes. The implementation of "racial purity" laws throughout the continent. The realization of Albert Speer's grandiose architectural plans for a Fatherland meant to rule the world.

With this novel, Robert Harris enters the front ranks of such international suspense writers as Len Deighton, Martin Cruz Smith, and John le Carré. An international success, Fatherland is the most intriguing and talked-about novel of the year.