“700 years after Hitler personally won the war, one man discovers the truth about his god.”

NO MAJOR SPOILERS

I’ve been hearing about this novel for years, first published in 1937 it’s a dystopian tale that wonders what life would have been like had Hitler won the war. It was one of the earliest books of the Left Book Club in the UK, a group that would become the roots for the UK Labour Party. The novel went out of print for a while and was republished in the mid-80s and as a big fan of dystopia, I felt that I should add this to my read books.

It’s said to be a pre-cursor for 1984, but if you start it expecting an early Orwell novel then you may be left disappointed. The author himself had ties to the book club and it’s possible this is a book he may have read though, and it’s certainly bleak enough to be one of his works.

To imagine this all praising Hitler, worshipping kind of world, where women and Englishmen are treated lower than animals is quite difficult today and in that way the novel hasn’t aged all that well, which maybe explains why it went out of print. However, it’s still an important work I feel not least because of its feminist tones and it’s perfect astute capturing of the way truths are distorted through generations.

I really liked Alfred, he bore his secret well.

This isn’t a very long book and while it may not appeal to the Hunger Games fans, it’s an interesting historical insight and a good early look into dystopia in general.