If you’re an avid reader or book collector, you will have at least heard of the Folio Society which has been printing retrospective illustrated versions of classic books and literature in the traditional folio format since 1947. It's latest offering is a beautiful reprint, priced at $105, of Robert Harris's "Fatherland", a gripping thriller set in an alternate history where Nazi Germany emerged victorious in WWII.
It was also made into a movie which disappointed the author. "My first novel, Fatherland, was made into a very bad film. By the time it was shot there'd been so many artistic compromises – in particular two fundamental changes in the story – that it ceased to have the feel of the novel. Some people like it but I have to say that I don't", he said.
I've watched the movie and dipped in and out of the online book, and must admit the plot of the novel was extremely simplified in the movie. Perhaps the radio play is more satisfying:
I have paid my price to the Fatherland by way of a miserable post-war childhood, and will hold onto the $105 and just read the online book.
P.S. An audiobook on ebay - click here - has a promising audio sample.
