- Paperback: 204 pages
- Publisher: Quaestor2000 Ltd (29 May 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1906836132
- ISBN-13: 978-1906836139
- Product Dimensions: 22.6 x 15 x 1.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 439,834 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Review
History does not always remember the heroesheroes, but this novel does - I recommend that every student of history read it. --John B. Willett, Charles William Eliot Professor, Harvard University
Forget Dan Brown. This is real art history, real conspiracy, and really relevant. The author's writing is up to the task, as is his knowledge of Germany. Glaser is a great figure, for whom one feels enormous empathy. --Alan Posener, Korrespondent für Politik und Gesellschaft, Welt am Sonntag, Berlin
... convincing, absorbing and revealing. --Katherine Taylor, Munich Found
Forget Dan Brown. This is real art history, real conspiracy, and really relevant. The author's writing is up to the task, as is his knowledge of Germany. Glaser is a great figure, for whom one feels enormous empathy. --Alan Posener, Korrespondent für Politik und Gesellschaft, Welt am Sonntag, Berlin
... convincing, absorbing and revealing. --Katherine Taylor, Munich Found
Product Description
Munich in 1933, the year of Hitler's rise to power, saw a last-ditch fight by German democracy and the beginning of the Nazi attempt to destroy the soul of mankind. In the front line were the German Expressionist painters, who painted from the soul and were therefore declared 'degenerate'. Against this background, the novel traces the journey of Gerhard Glaser, art lover and lawyer. Glaser was Public Prosecutor in the case of Geli Raubal, Hitler's niece and, Glaser believes, his first murder victim. Haunted by his failure in the Raubal case, Glaser tries to find Hitler's drawings of Geli and solve the murder of the Jewish art dealer who had them, in an attempt to bring Hitler to account within the law. But matters will not stop there ... A thought-provoking novel about German resistance to Hitler in the 1930s which will appeal to a wide range of readers. Michael Dean, a highly experienced author of non-fiction and screenplays, approaches a disturbing period with skill and sensitivity.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Having had the privilege of being one of the first to read this convincing, absorbing and revealing historical novel by Michael Dean I can thoroughly recommend it to anyone with an interest in the "flesh and blood" personalities behind the facts and figures of the history books. Set in Munich's Nazi-resistance milieu of 1933, the year Hitler came to power, the novel pays tribute to the ordinary Germans who opposed Hitler - the Germans whom history has largely forgotten. Michael Dean has convincingly peopled his novel with journalists, politicians, lawyers, socialites, labourers and family members, some of whom are entirely fictional and others - including the lead protagonist, the lawyer Gerhard Glaser - who have their origins in the non-fictional past. Also aiming to examine the moral dilemmas posed by bravery, Dean does so by skilfully enabling the reader to accompany the thought and decision-making processes of his ordinary characters as they are faced with out-of-the-ordinary predicaments. The Crooked Cross reads briskly and, as an experienced screenplay writer, Dean ensures that the protagonists' body language - their gestures and poses - makes a significant contribution to the plot's energetic pace. The novel's backdrop is interwoven with the colourful threads of German Expressionism and the frequent place, street and venue names provide ample indicators of Munich as the main setting. The Crooked Cross makes absorbing reading and is a compelling historical novel with a wide appeal: a warmly recommended read.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I came to this novel with only a rudimentary understanding of its historical period and finished it feeling that I personally witnessed the events that Dean so eloquently describes. Intricately plotted and full of ingenious twists, 'The Crooked Cross' is a page turner with a refreshing intellectual edge and, I would have to say, one of the most moving books I have ever read. A truly awe-inspiring piece of fiction- I am eagerly awaiting further publications from this exciting new author.
Format:Paperback
Some readers might be put off by the notes and bibliography (the latter just shy of 100 books) read or consulted during the writing of The Crooked Cross. That's what I looked at second when wondering if I should buy the book. I was initally attracted by the Durer etching on the front cover, and the tag: MUNICH 1933. Having just read 'Berlin Alexanderplatz' I was primed for more about Germany between the wars. (It's the same feeling I got when I finished watching 'The Wire'. I want MORE about Baltimore. I miss the city and the characters just as I miss farflung friends). The research that Mr Dean has given to his story - and he is up-front in the notes about where he departed from recorded truth, or filled in holes in recorded knowledge with inference - made me feel in good bi-lingual hands. The author knows German and Germany. He can 'translate' for an English-speaking audience not only snoozing facts, but the feeling of what it felt like to be alive in that betwixt-and-between city of Munich in 1933. It's great fictional territory. And the problem of Germans in that year are relevant to humans in lots of years: 'When does it become apparent that the cost of making trains run on time is too high to pay?' Mr Dean has chosen well in his siting of the novel in Munich at that tipping-point. We have (mainly) historical characters plotting the death of Mr Hitler. The good assassins have spotted the signs: the disappearing Jewish shops; the bullying; the yes-men rewarded. The unlikely heroes ACT, and pay the price with a hidden martyrdom. A novel that, with research and the power of imagination, brings such forgotten heroisms out of the dark for us to give remembrance while at the same time providing the reader with a damned good yarn, is to be applauded. And this I do - probably not very well - with this short review, and five stars.
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