Play Audiobook Sample
The Third Reich: A Novel Audiobook
Play Audiobook Sample
(3.00) - 1,106 listener ratings
Quick Stats About this Audiobook
Total Audiobook Chapters:
Longest Chapter Length:
Shortest Chapter Length:
Average Chapter Length:
Audiobooks by this Author:
Publisher Description
On vacation with his girlfriend, Ingeborg, the German war games champion Udo Berger returns to a small town on the Costa Brava where he spent the summers of his childhood. Soon they meet another vacationing German couple, Charly and Hanna, who introduce them to a band of locals—the Wolf, the Lamb, and El Quemado—and to the darker side of life in a resort town. Late one night, Charly disappears without a trace, and Udo's well-ordered life is thrown into upheaval; while Ingeborg and Hanna return to their lives in Germany, he refuses to leave the hotel. Soon he and El Quemado are enmeshed in a round of Third Reich, Udo's favorite World War II strategy game, and Udo discovers that the game's consequences may be all too real. Written in 1989 and found among Roberto Bolaño's papers after his death, The Third Reich is a stunning exploration of memory and violence. Reading this quick, visceral novel, we see a world-class writer coming into his own—and exploring for the first time the themes that would define his masterpieces The Savage Detectives and 2666.
Download and start listening now!
"I am so happy to see more or Roberto Bolano's books becoming available in English. I held off on reading this because I wanted to savour it, to take my time in Bolano's world. A more straight-forward/marginal read than, say, 2666 or Savage Detectives, I found it less rewarding, less menacing. Two weeks later, however, I am still thinking about it."
— Rainecoates (4 out of 5 stars)
Quotes
-
“As a sharply observed chronicle of a man out of place in his own life and mind, it has a timelessness reminiscent of the best work of Christopher Isherwood. And that's nicely enhanced by Vance's cool, British-toned reading.
— The Providence Sunday Journal -
Novelists tend to be remembered for their most remarkable characters, and in Udo Berger, Bolaño has created someone complex, sometimes frustrating and absolutely unforgettable . . . Compassionate, disturbing and deeply felt, [The Third Reich is] as much of a gift as anything the late author has given us.
— Michael Schaub, NPR -
Bolaño was a writer with tricks up his sleeve, and he distributed his wiles across many genres: novellas, poetry, short stories, essays and the epic 1,100-page 2666. So what's The Third Reich like? Capering, weird, rascally and short. Imagine a cross between Thomas Mann's Death in Venice, the CLUE board game and a wargames fanzine. It's a scathing novel with a lot of exuberance to it, not unlike the man who wrote it . . . The Third Reich is giddily funny, but it is also prickly and bizarre enough to count among Bolaño's first-rate efforts.
— The Economist -
[Bolaño] makes you feel changed for having read him; he adjusts your angle of view on the world.
— Ben Richards, The Guardian on Roberto Bolaño -
When I read Bolaño I think: Everything is possible again.
— Nicole Krauss on Roberto Bolaño -
Not since Gabriel García Márquez . . . has a Latin American redrawn the map of world literature so emphatically as Roberto Bolaño does . . . It's no exaggeration to call him a genius.
— Ilan Stavans, The Washington Post Book World on Roberto Bolaño -
[Bolaño's] work . . . is as vital, thrilling and life-enhancing as anything in modern fiction.
— Christopher Goodwin, The Sunday Times (London) on Roberto Bolaño -
Novelists have been smashing high and low together for a century, but Bolaño does it with the force of a supercollider.
— Daniel Zalewski, The New Yorker on Roberto Bolaño -
[Bolaño] has the natural storyteller's gift--but more important, he has the power to lend an extraordinary glamour to the activities of making love and making poetry.
— Edmund White on Roberto Bolaño -
A successor to Borges, García Márquez, and Julio Cortázar.
— Siddhartha Deb, Harper's Magazine on Roberto Bolaño -
The most influential and admired novelist of his generation.
— Susan Sontag on Roberto Bolaño
The Third Reich Listener Reviews
-
" Great moments, funny/fun premises, classic bolano looming and tenuous dred, ultimately unsatisfying... "
— Corey, 1/29/2014 -
" I really did not like this. Nothing interesting happened. I think I will probably give this book to my Mum as I will not be reading this again. "
— Sophie, 12/25/2013 -
" What a strange, disturbing, lovely book...! The final part felt somewhat disappointing though. That's a risk you run when you are enjoying a book so much: the ending may just not be good enough. I don't believe I'll ever think of Costa Brava with the same coolness after reading this book. By the way, it's July... I should BE there! "
— Manuel, 12/19/2013 -
" Not my favorite book by him, but the prose still had elements of what I like about his writing. Strange premise and seemed overly drawn out. "
— Marcus, 12/17/2013 -
" Technically precise, with an undercurrent of pain. A damn fine read. Structurally, a fucking clinic. "
— Sean, 12/16/2013 -
" Apparently the only thing worse than playing Dungeons and Dragons is listing to someone explain every move in excruciating detail. Not even a murder could save that book. "
— Angie, 11/20/2013 -
" It's good so far....reading it serialized this year in the Paris Review. "
— Jeff, 11/17/2013 -
" Good, but understandable why he didn't have it published while alive. "
— Matt, 8/23/2013 -
" This was amazing - it really stuck with me. One of Bolano's more accessible works. "
— Christianne, 5/5/2013 -
" One of those where you just wished it would do more. A great idea, a great premise, but it just sits there and you think what could have been. I'm just not impressed. "
— Fatfriendsfriend, 11/5/2012 -
" I read it serialized in the Paris Review. Looking forward to reading other books of his. "
— Frances, 5/30/2012 -
" I think that this book is for the die-hard Bolano fans who are curious about where it all began ( this is his early work). "
— Tatiana, 1/27/2012
About Roberto Bolaño
Roberto Bolaño (1953–2003) was born in Santiago, Chile, and later lived in Mexico, France, and Spain. He has been acclaimed by the Los Angeles Times as “by far the most exciting writer to come from south of the Rio Grande in a long time” and as “the real thing and the rarest” by Susan Sontag. Among his many prizes are the prestigious Premio Herralde de Novela and the Premio Rómulo Gallegos. Bolaño is widely considered the greatest Latin American writer of his generation. He wrote nine novels, two story collections, and five books of poetry before his death at the age of fifty.
About the Narrators
Natasha Wimmer’s translation of Bolaño’s The Savage Detectives was chosen as one of the ten best books of 2007 by the Washington Post and New York Times. Her translation of his 2666 won the National Book Award’s Best Novel of the Year as well as the PEN Prize.
Simon Vance (a.k.a. Robert Whitfield) is an award-winning actor and narrator. He has earned more than fifty Earphones Awards and won the prestigious Audie Award for best narration thirteen times. He was named Booklist’s very first Voice of Choice in 2008 and has been named an AudioFile Golden Voice as well as an AudioFile Best Voice of 2009. He has narrated more than eight hundred audiobooks over almost thirty years, beginning when he was a radio newsreader for the BBC in London. He is also an actor who has appeared on both stage and television.