Berlin: The Downfall, 1945 [Hardcover]

Military history, even at its best, can be a cold art. It's easy to lose sight of the fact that wars involve individuals, each with their own hopes, fears and desires. Berlin: the Downfall, 1945, is Antony Beevor's account of the bloody Götterdämmerung that brought the Second World War in Europe to an end, and in which he has fused the large and the small scale effects of war. Beevor paints the broad picture of Marshals Zhukov and Konev, competing for glory and Stalin's attention, as they race their armies towards Berlin. He gives the reader a gripping account of the brutal street-by-street fighting in the German capital and provides an unforgettable portrait of the last, insane days of Hitler and his entourage in the bunker.

His attention to emotional detail is what made his previous book Stalingrad such a magnificent work, combining a sweeping hisorical narrative with a remarkable sensitivity to human drama. Yet he also highlights the small details of ordinary people caught in the nightmare of history--the sick children evacuated at the last minute from a Potsdam hospital; the Soviet soldiers shaving themselves for the first time in weeks so that they would make appropriately presentable conquerors; and the Nazi Youth teenagers peddling their bikes in despairing, last-ditch attacks against the Red Army's tanks.

The story Beevor tells is an almost unremittingly terrible one--one of death, rape, hunger and human misery--but he tells it with both an epic sweep and an alertness to individuality. The result is a masterpiece of narrative history that is as powerful as Stalingrad. --Nick Rennison

Fascinating, extraordinary, gripping (Jeremy Paxman )

This brilliant storyteller makes us feel the chaos and the fear as if every drop of blood was our own. It is much more than just a humane account; it is compellingly readable, deeply researched, and beautifully written (Simon Sebag Montefiore Spectator ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Antony Beevor's remarkable Stalingrad won the Samuel Johnson prize in 1999, along with a slew of other awards. Berlin; The Downfall 1945 depicts the most terrifying example of fire and sword ever known when Soviet soldiers reached the frontiers of the Reich in January 1945. It is an unforgettable story of those men, women and children who suffered from a naked exercise of power on a scale that is almost incomprehensible. Accompanied by a major national press campaign and a BBC series that is to air just after publication. Look for this one to do quite as well as its predecessor.

Berlin will be the biggest history paperback of 2003, it has sold over 140,000 copies in hardback and was a number one bestseller for six weeks, it stayed in the top ten for a further 20 weeks. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

The advance on Berlin - which was to be the largest battle in history - began at exactly 4am on 16 April, 1945. Along the Oder Neisse front, two and a half million Soviet troops attacked one million Germans. The panic induced in the German civilian population is easy to imagine. Hitler had sworn that Germany would never be invaded, yet now overwhelming Soviet armies were advancing on Berlin. The utterly deranged Hitler ensconced deep in his concrete bunker, could only scream at his military staff. Denouncing the cowardice of the Wehrmacht, he had become convinced that Germany's defeat proved that its people were not worthy of him - that they deserved to die. This book reconstitutes the experience of those millions caught up in the nightmare crescendo of the Third Reich's final defeat - a story encompassing the realities of those who suffered to the end from folly, cruelty and the exercise of naked power. The battle for Berlin is revealed as a terrifying example of fire and sword, pillage, mass rape, and murder.

Antony Beevor began his career as a professional officer in the 11th Hussars. He is the author of several books, including THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR and CRETE. With his wife, Artemis Cooper, he wrote PARIS AFTER THE LIBERATION but he is best known for his book STALINGRAD (Viking, 1999), the international No 1 bestseller, and winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize, Wolfson Price and Hawthornden Prize. He lives in London SW6 and Kent.