The Madagascar Manifesto: Child of the Light, Child of the Journey, Children of the Dusk

The Madagascar Manifesto #1-3

by Janet Berliner, George Guthridge

The Madagascar Manifesto is not a work of idle fantasy. Nor is it a story purely of horror. While most of the events described in these novels are products of the authors' imaginations, they are set amidst the true history of our world. Painstakingly researched, written, rewritten, and rewritten again, the work took more than fifteen years before all three volumes finally saw publication. To Janet and George it was worth all of the effort when the final volume, Children of the Dusk, received recognition in the form of the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Novel in 1998. The Madagascar Plan, the cornerstone of the alternative history used in the Madagascar Manifesto, was a true proposal originated around the time of the French Revolution by one of Napoleon's advisors. During the period in which Hitler was playing the role of reasoned statesman to the world outside Germany, the Madagascar Plan resurfaced and was seriously debated even in the U.S. Congress as a possible "solution to the Jewish question." While the Madagascar Manifesto is a work of fiction, it is also a reflection of some of the realities of our world which we usually prefer not to see. It is not light reading, but its rewards are an understanding of what is bright and what is dark in all of us.

776 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Edward Champion · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the most extraordinary and original genre trilogies I've ever read. Janet Berliner and George Guthridge really deserve a solid hardbound edition of their nearly 800 page epic. These three books combine Robert McCammon-style horror madness, Martin Millar-style energy, a bit of Wold Newton (particularly with cameos from Hitler and Leni Riefenstahl), authentic commitment to historical detail, and, perhaps most important of all, sweeping storytelling featuring vivid characters -- specifically, Sol (Jewish) and Erich (German, slowly indoctrinated into Nazi evil), and Miriam (the woman they both love). Imagine if Tolstoy and JULES AND JIM were somehow whirred into a blender with a Holocaust novel with some modest psychic superpowers (the ability to control dogs and see visions) and you may have SOMETHING of an idea for why this trilogy is so great. Berliner and Guthridge do not flinch at all from the vile violence, cruelty, and anti-Semitism that went down. So this is incredibly dark reading. But it's also a major literary achievement as far as I'm concerned. Highly recommended if you're interested in German history and horror.