Forgotten Fatherland
Ben Macintyre
'Startling, dark and absorbing' Independent
'Excellent travel writing: vivid, sympathetic, humorous' Guardian
'Fascinating, provocative and highly eccentric' New York Times
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In 1886 Elisabeth Nietzsche, the philosopher Friedrich's bigoted, imperious sister, founded a 'racially pure' colony in Paraguay together with a band of blond-haired fellow Germans. Over a century later, Ben Macintyre sought out the survivors of Nueva Germania to discover the remains of this bizarre colony.
Forgotten Fatherland vividly recounts his arduous adventure locating the survivors, while also tracing the colorful history of Elisabeth's return to Europe, where she inspired the mythical cult of her brother's philosophy and later became a mentor to Hitler. Brilliantly researched and mordantly funny, this is an illuminating portrait of a forgotten people and of a woman whose deep influence on the twentieth century can only now be fully understood.
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About Ben Macintyre
Reviews for Forgotten Fatherland
New York Times
Witty, intelligent and told with a rollicking, trenchant style
Boston Globe
Macintyre's journey to rediscover Nueva Germania deep in the Paraguayan forest and his descriptions of what he found, make compelling reading. But more fascinating still is the story Macintyre interleaves with his discovery, that of Elisabeth's own life and her deliberate distortions of her brother's philosophy to make it accord with her own
Julia Neuberger
Sunday Times
Remarkable and entertaining ... Macintyre weaves the many threads together with considerable literary skill, jumping backwards and forwards between Paraguayan past and present, between the Germany of Bismarck and of Hitler ... a parade of exotic figures and tall tales inhabit the story
Richard Overy
Observer
Macintyre's powers as a writer are wonderfully responsive. This year's crop of travel books is unlikely to yield anything more bizarrely compelling
Jonathan Keates
Independent
Excellent travel writing: vivid, sympathetic, humorous
R.J. Hollingdale
Guardian
Macintyre's report from the tattered remnants is startling, dark and absorbing
Independent