---
product_id: 55625189
title: "Munich: A novel"
brand: "robert harris"
price: "€ 26.66"
currency: EUR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 8
url: https://www.desertcart.de/products/55625189-munich-a-novel
store_origin: DE
region: Germany
---

# Munich: A novel

**Brand:** robert harris
**Price:** € 26.66
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

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- **What is this?** Munich: A novel by robert harris
- **How much does it cost?** € 26.66 with free shipping
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## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    A new take on Neville Chamberlain at Munich in a fascinating historical novel
  

*by M***K on Reviewed in the United States on January 30, 2018*

Mention Neville Chamberlain and Munich in the same breath today, and you're likely to elicit a grimace. The agreement in 1938 between the British Prime Minister and Adolf Hitler to dismember Czechoslovakia is regarded as one of the most shameful and tragic events of the 20th century. But is it fair to condemn Chamberlain without understanding his motivation or the context of the times? The British thriller author Robert Harris has been exploring that question for thirty years. The result is his new novel, Munich. The book is not an alternative history like his popular novel, Fatherland. It's fact-based historical fiction.Why did Neville Chamberlain go to Munich?As Harris paints the picture, Chamberlain's actions in 1938 were not just understandable but possibly admirable. He was not naive about Hitler's intentions. His rush to sign the pact with Nazi Germany responded to almost universal desire to avoid war, the difficulty of refuting Hitler's logic about absorbing the Sudetenland Germans into the Reich, and Chamberlain's passionate desire to avoid repeating the slaughter of World War I. (He had been too old to serve in the military then.)Harris based his novel on extensive reading about the Munich conference and the principal characters involved in it, which he details in a long bibliography in his Acknowledgements. Moreover, recent research suggests that if Britain and France had gone to war against Germany in 1938, the result would have been devastating. It's true that the Nazi invasion of France and the Low Countries in May 1940 and the Battle of Britain that followed were disastrous for the Allies. However, the nearly two-year delay Chamberlain achieved at Munich allowed Britain to equip and staff the Royal Air Force just enough to stave off a German invasion of the island in September 1940. Harris implies that Chamberlain was fully conscious that war would come. He sought only to gain time.An historical novel wrapped in a thrillerHarris builds his story around two central characters, one English, the other German. Hugh Legat is the most junior of Neville Chamberlain's three Private Secretaries; he serves essentially as a gofer but is pressed into service at times as an interpreter and, even more rarely, as a wordsmith. Paul von Hartmann holds a similarly junior post in the German Foreign Ministry; he despises the Nazis and has joined a conspiracy to depose Hitler. The two young men had been classmates and friends at Oxford. They'd last seen each other in 1932 on a vacation in Germany.Von Hartmann has secured a document that proves Hitler's intention to expand Germany's borders through war regardless of any international agreements. With the help of his collaborators in the anti-Nazi conspiracy, he travels from Berlin to Munich in hopes of delivering the document directly to Neville Chamberlain. Through their connections in London, the conspirators have contrived to arrange for Legat to be assigned to attend the conference, too. Von Hartmann expected Legat to help him get to Chamberlain. Harris builds a suspenseful story around the effort to arrange that.Historical figures in a fictional settingLegat and von Hartmann are both fictional characters. However, many of the other figures portrayed in Munich are based on real men. Prominent among them are British Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax and German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, as well as Chamberlain, Hitler, Mussolini, and French Premier Daladier. The author's portrayal of these historical figures is solidly grounded in his research.About the authorRobert Harris is one of the most successful writers in the world today. Most of his work is historical fiction about World War II and Ancient Rome. Beginning with Fatherland in 1992, his novels also include The Ghost (adapted to film as The Ghost Writer) and the three novels in the Cicero trilogy.

### ⭐ 







  
  
    For insomniacs seeking a non-narcotic sleep aid
  

*by C***D on Reviewed in the United States on January 29, 2019*

Robert Harris is best known for his novel “Fatherland” which offers an alternative history of WWII where Adolph Hitler prevails.  It was a good book as was “Enigma” but sadly what Harris offers up here is nothing like his previous work.  In the ‘Acknowledgments’ Harris admits to a fascination with the Munich Agreement he’s had for over 30 years.  He even explains he made a BBC TV documentary for the 50th anniversary of the conference.  In “Munich” readers are presented with a rather pedantic retelling of the events leading up to one of the 20th century’s greatest diplomatic failures.  It’s September 1938 and the Nazi’s are poised to invade Czechoslovakia while British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain is desperate to prevent another world war.  The story unfolds through the eyes of two characters; private secretary to the PM, Hugh Legat and his old college chum Paul von Hartmann who is now a staffer in the German Foreign Office.  The story is chock full of real-life historical figures not so artfully blended with our fictitious bureaucrats.  Unfortunately it is all so painfully dull that it forced me to do something I rarely do, which is to quit reading after a bit more than a third of it.  Harris doesn’t give us anything new; we know how it all ends with Chamberlain’s “peace in our time” misstatement.  There’s no suspense, no action, no excitement, just a lot of translating messages and administrative tedium.  The most danger our protagonists face is a paper cut or maybe a jammed stapler.  In one scene Legat is driving to a meeting with Chamberlain making some corrections to a speech and Legat notes that it’s hard to write in a moving vehicle…no kidding!  The number of 5 and 4 star reviews are surprising; how anyone could call this book a ‘thriller’ is beyond me.  I skimmed the remaining 200 or so pages and believe me, nothing really happens.  I usually enjoy historical fiction, especially set in the WWII period but “Munich” failed to engage me.  As I’m getting older life’s too short to waste on reading uninteresting books.

### ⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Cardboard figures try to humanize the Munich crisis to no avail.
  

*by R***L on Reviewed in the United States on January 27, 2018*

The events of Munich are well-known, and I DID enjoy the presentation of the much maligned British PM's point of view as he desperately looked for peace.  But I agree with other reviewers...an appendix listing all the characters would have been helpful.  There was too much description as to stairways and cloakrooms and bathrooms (!!!) that was unnecessarily detailed and confusing.  The main characters were cardboard cutouts.I like Harris's earlier books about Germany..."Fatherland" and "Enigma" stand out as terrific reads.This reads like a fictionalized docu drama...not fiction.  The main characters' STORIES should have been in the forefront, with Munich in the background.  It played out the other way, to the detriment of the book.

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*Store origin: DE*
*Last updated: 2026-02-20*