HHhH
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Narrated by:
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John Lee
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By:
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Laurent Binet
About this listen
HHhH: "Himmlers Hirn heisst Heydrich," or "Himmler's brain is called Heydrich." The most dangerous man in Hitler's cabinet, Reinhard Heydrich was known as the "Butcher of Prague." He was feared by all and loathed by most. With his cold Aryan features and implacable cruelty, Heydrich seemed indestructible - until two men, a Slovak and a Czech recruited by the British secret service - killed him in broad daylight on a bustling street in Prague, and thus changed the course of History.
Who were these men, arguably two of the most discreet heroes of the twentieth century? In Laurent Binet's captivating debut novel, we follow Jozef Gabcik and Jan Kubiš from their dramatic escape of Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia to England; from their recruitment to their harrowing parachute drop into a war zone, from their stealth attack on Heydrich's car to their own brutal death in the basement of a Prague church.
A seemingly effortlessly blend of historical truth, personal memory, and Laurent Binet's remarkable imagination, HHhH- an international best seller and winner of the prestigious Prix Goncourt du Premier Roman - is a work at once thrilling and intellectually engrossing, a fast-paced novel of the Second World War that is also a profound meditation on the nature of writing and the debt we owe to history.
©2009 Editions Grasset et Fasquelle. Translation from the French copyright 2012 by Sam Taylor (P)2012 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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In the tradition of Agent Zigzag comes this breathtaking biography, as fast-paced and emotionally intuitive as the very best spy thrillers, which illuminates an unsung hero of the French Resistance during World War II - Robert de La Rochefoucald, an aristocrat turned anti-Nazi saboteur - and his daring exploits as a résistant trained by Britain's Special Operations Executive.
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Brave outstanding young man
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By: Paul Kix
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Adolfo Kaminsky
- A Forger's Life
- By: Sarah Kaminsky, Mike Mitchell
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 5 hrs and 50 mins
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At the age of 17, Adolfo Kaminsky had narrowly escaped deportation to Auschwitz and was living in Nazi-occupied Paris, using forged documents to hide in plain sight. Due to his expert knowledge of dyes and his ability to masterfully reproduce official documents with an artistic eye, he was recruited to join the Jewish underground. He soon became the primary forger for the Resistance in Paris, working tirelessly with his network to create papers that would save an estimated 14,000 men, women, and children from certain death.
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Incredible!
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By: Sarah Kaminsky, and others
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Symphony for the City of the Dead
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- By: M. T. Anderson
- Narrated by: M. T. Anderson
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
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In September 1941, Adolf Hitler's Wehrmacht surrounded Leningrad in what was to become one of the longest and most destructive sieges in Western history - almost three years of bombardment and starvation that culminated in the harsh winter of 1943 - 1944. Trapped between the Nazi invading force and the Soviet government itself was composer Dmitri Shostakovich, who would write a symphony that roused, rallied, eulogized, and commemorated his fellow citizens - the Leningrad Symphony.
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An Eye-Opening, Emotional Tale
- By A.L.R. on 02-05-16
By: M. T. Anderson
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Adolf Hitler
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Based on previously unpublished documents, diaries, notes, photographs, and dramatic interviews with Hitler's colleagues and associates, this is the definitive biography of one of the most despised yet fascinating figures of the 20th century. Painstakingly documented, it is a work that will not soon be forgotten.
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Strange Person
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By: John Toland
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When Paris Went Dark
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On June 14, 1940, German tanks entered a silent and nearly deserted Paris. Eight days later, France accepted a humiliating defeat and foreign occupation. Subsequently, an eerie sense of normalcy settled over the City of Light. Many Parisians keenly adapted themselves to the situation - even allied themselves with their Nazi overlords. At the same time, amidst this darkening gloom of German ruthlessness, shortages, and curfews, a resistance arose.
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Good but not great
- By gaillardia on 08-21-14
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Children of the Night
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The country that gave us Vlad Dracula, and whose citizens consider themselves descendants of ancient Rome, has traditionally preferred the status of enigmatic outsider. But this beautiful and unexplored land has experienced some of the most disastrous leaderships of the last century. After a relatively benign period led by a dutiful king and his vivacious, British-born queen, the country oscillated wildly.
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A haunting look at Romanian history
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By: Paul Kenyon
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Avenue of Spies
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The leafy Avenue de Foch, one of the most exclusive residential streets in Nazi-occupied France, was Paris' hotbed of daring spies, murderous secret police, amoral informers, and Vichy collaborators. So when American physician Sumner Jackson, who lived with his wife and young son, Phillip, at Number 11, found himself drawn into the Liberation network of the French resistance, he knew the stakes were impossibly high.
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Gripping, inspirational, and informative!!
- By Constance M. Specht on 09-26-15
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Spies of No Country
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- By: Matti Friedman
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 6 hrs and 2 mins
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The four spies at the center of this story were part of a ragtag unit known as the Arab Section, conceived during World War II by British spies and Jewish militia leaders in Palestine. Intended to gather intelligence and carry out sabotage and assassinations, the unit consisted of Jews who were native to the Arab world and could thus easily assume Arab identities. In 1948, with Israel's existence in the balance during the War of Independence, our spies went undercover in Beirut, where they spent the next two years operating out of a kiosk....
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Absolutely brilliant
- By David Mane on 06-23-19
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The Last Palace
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- By: Norman Eisen
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When Norman Eisen moved into the US ambassador’s residence in Prague, returning to the land his mother had fled after the Holocaust, he was startled to discover swastikas hidden beneath the furniture in his new home. These symbols of Nazi Germany were remnants of the residence’s forgotten history, and evidence that we never live far from the past. From that discovery unspooled the twisting, captivating tale of four of the remarkable people who had called this palace home. Their story is Europe’s....
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Great book despite goldblum’s narration
- By Fernando Ferrante on 01-19-19
By: Norman Eisen
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Hitler
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- By: Ernst Hanfstaengl
- Narrated by: Robin Sachs
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An intimate friend of Adolf Hitler’s who turned against him during the Nazi rise to power delves into the character of one of history’s most evil dictators. Of American and German parentage, Ernst Hanfstaengl graduated from Harvard and ran the family business in New York for a dozen years before returning to Germany in 1921. By chance he heard a then little-known Adolf Hitler speaking in a Munich beer hall and, mesmerized by his extraordinary oratorical power, was convinced the man would some day come to power. As Hitler’s fanatical theories and ideas hardened, however, he surrounded himself with rabid extremists...
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Once a Nazi, always a Nazi
- By Alan on 04-10-13
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Listen to the sample first!
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What listeners say about HHhH
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Scott
- 02-28-13
The Blond Beast
Any additional comments?
I really liked this audiobook. I thought the narrator and the material were a great fit and I thought the story was told in an interesting fashion. Prior to listening to this audiobook I had never even heard of Reinhard Heydrich, or if I had I certainly didn’t remember him. After listening, I clearly understood how great of a role he played within the Nazi regime. There are also a number of interesting side-stories that Binet recounts that don’t directly relate to Heydrich’s tale but took place during the time and work well with the story – giving it a richer texture. It’s not a surprise that HHhH won the Prix Goncourt and garnered so much high praise from reviewers. It’s entertaining, informative, and well written/translated.
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- chetyarbrough.blog
- 07-14-14
CIRCLES OF HELL
Judging from Laurent Binet’s “HHhH”, Hitler may be the only WWII leader who earns a lower place in Dante’s circles of hell than Reinhard Heydrich. Except for those steeped in history, the name Reinhard Heydrich does not resonate like Eichmann, Goebbels, Himmler, and Hitler. Heydrich is Hitler’s action-man, an organizer and perpetrator of the “final solution” that exemplifies the world’s shame.
Heydrich is called the “blond beast”, an image suggesting a golden-haired Teutonic giant wielding a canister of Zyklon B in one hand and a German Luger in the other. When looking at a picture of Heydrich, the image seems in error. Pictures of Heydrich show a man who is far from handsome with a receding hairline, enormous nose, and tiredly furtive eyes. Heydrich’s tight lipped, unsmiling, and elongated face is menacing. He looks like a stern father or teacher; capable of whipping or smacking knuckles of a child with a leather belt or an 18” ruler. Based on Binet’s “HHhH”, Heydrich is considerably worse than a stern father or teacher. Heydrich is a mass murderer with an education equal to Leopold and Loeb, a murdering mentality rivaling Pol Pot, and a policy instinct reminiscent of Joseph Stalin.
The denouement of Binet’s book is the attempted assassination of Heydrich by two Czechoslovakian patriots, Jozef Gabcik and Jan Kubis. These two men, one is Czech and the other Slovak, know they are unlikely to survive the attempt but become symbols of allied resistance to German occupation. An interesting aspect of this novel, other than its factual reporting, is Binet’s first person narration that is concerned with history’s fictionalization. It is a panegyric on the impossibility of truly writing an accurate history of historical events.
In the end, Binet’s factual veracity seems better than average but he acknowledges his story is, after all, a historical novel, a fictionalized presentation of actual events. In spite of history’s reporting limitations, a listener will know a lot more about Reinhard Heydrich after reading or listening to “HHhH”.
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- Nathan Krisanda
- 04-12-21
All around exceptional book and performance
This book is fantastic, the narrator completely nails the tone of the writing, and the story itself is incredible. I listened to the last 6 or so hours on a rainy Sunday, I was completely gripped. Highly recommended.
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- Joe Mancini
- 11-19-24
Twists of time and perception
Perhaps you have heard of Laurent Binet, the virtuoso French novelist, son of a historian, who bends time and space in this story of the life and death of Reinhard Heidrich, Nazi gauleiter of Czechoslovakia, filled with contemporary references, this is superbly translated and read I highly recommend it.
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- Buzz
- 10-19-12
A “Literary Tour de Force” NYT
SS general Reinhard Heydrich is one of history’s cruelest and most depraved actors. He’s rotten to the core, but Hitler and Himmler like him, so his power and opportunities are unlimited and he rejoices in using them. He was assassinated by two Czech resistance heroes in 1942 in Prague, and HHhH tells the chilling story of the assassination. But the book is more than a narrative of an event that has been extensively researched and retold: It also tells the tale of the author researching and writing the book, sort of a “play within a play.” I found this technique, in the hands of French author, Laurent Binet, extremely effective and interesting, but because it does interrupt the exciting narrative of the assassination plot itself, it was disliked by some reviewers. To me, however, Binet’s literary journey and ideas about historical fiction, complemented the narrative in chief and raised the book from a adventure tale, to literary fiction. It is not clear whether Binet’s part in the book is real or imagined, but it doesn’t matter, this is a terrific book either way. The superb reader greatly enhanced my enjoyment of the book.
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- Amazon Customer
- 10-25-21
Great book, good-ish narrator
This is one of my favorite books, but the narrator sounds exactly like a British Captain Kirk. The overdramatic monotony of his voice, unfortunately, takes away some of my enjoyment of this amazing work.
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- Matthew
- 07-18-15
Great if you are in the mindset to run with it
This book is weird, but in a good way. It took me a while to feel that way, however.
This book is not a conventional novel or history. The author mixes history, an attempt to write a novel about the people involved, and a kind of running commentary on his own efforts and struggles in writing the book. In some ways it reminds me of the movie Adaptation, where an writer struggles to write a screenplay without inserting himself into the story.
This book provided an engaging window into a piece of World War II history that is not covered much anymore (at least, in my experience). It also provides interesting insight into the struggles of writing a historical novel.
The pacing of the book and its frequent switching between history, an attempt at fiction, and commentary on the attempt at writing historical fiction was very strange at first. I got used to it after a while and enjoyed it, but it may be off-putting to people in the mood for a conventional novel or history.
I find that John Lee's narration can be dynamite or difficult, and it really depends on the book. His range can make books with lots of dialogue and characters difficult to follow at times. This book was right up his alley, however, as the voice of the author and his struggles came through pretty well.
I would recommend this book for history and fiction fans looking for something different and experimental.
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- Celeste M
- 03-08-14
exciting WW2 history with a personal touch
HHhH is a vivid and emotional retelling of an almost unbelievable true story, and kept me in suspense, ready to find out what happened next. I greatly enjoyed the voicing of both author and reader. (And translator.)
Strictly speaking, this book doesn't just tell the story of heroic WW2 soldiers and horrible Nazi think tanks. While that is the main thrust of the narrative, the book includes a rich view of the political and social climate, enriching the overall world of the story. By meandering into beginnings of other equally fascinating stories, Binet provides connective tissue of each historic thread. And he does so in a way that is extremely interesting, rather than a distraction from the main story. Continuing with the postmodern form, we're also let in on the author's personal obsessive information hunt, nagging creative insecurities, and life difficulties. What fun to hear about his process of making the novel!
I found the story both a thoughtful retelling and an engaging page-turner… Is "page-turner" an appropriate word for audiobooks?
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- Jim from New Mexico
- 08-28-24
Then unusual style of writing
I loved everything. Pretending the historical events are happening to the author in modern times is really be neat.
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- Scott
- 11-15-13
Interesting and compelling take
Any additional comments?
Interesting take on a pretty well documented subject, ie. the allied plot to assassinate Heydrich, architect of the final solution. Interweaves the historical parts with the author's experiences in writing the book. Some reviewers seemed to dislike this aspect but I thought it added a contemporary emotional dimension to what otherwise could have been a sterile story. Overall, it is good history mixed with thrilling storytelling.
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