The kindly ones
Subtitle: a novel
By: Jonathan Littell
Publisher: Chatto & Windus
Published: 2009
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 983
ISBN-13: 9780701181659; 9780701181666
Subjects: Intelligence officers; Fiction; World War, 1939-1945; Secret service; Military intelligence; History; Atrocities; Politics and government
Work titles: Bienveillantes
Description: Dr Max Aue is a family man and owner of a lace factory in post-war France. He is an intellectual steeped in philosophy, literature, and classical music. He is also a former SS intelligence officer and cold-blooded assassin. He was an observer and then a participant in Nazi atrocities on the Eastern Front, he was present at the siege of Stalingrad, at the death camps, and finally caught up in the overthrow of the Nazis and the nightmarish fall of Berlin. His world was peopled by Eichmann, Himmler, G_ring, Speer and, of course, Hitler himself. Max is looking back at his life with cool-eyed precision; he is speaking out now to set the record straight.
Notes: Translated from the French.