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HHhH

Laurent Binet

4.10 · Rating details · 17,227 ratings · 2,153 reviews

Deux parachutistes tchécoslovaques envoyés par Londres sont chargés d’assassiner Reinhard Heydrich, chef de la Gestapo, chef des services secrets nazis, planificateur de la solution finale, protecteur de Bohème-Moravie, surnommé "le bourreau", "la bête blonde", "l’homme le plus dangereux du IIIe Reich". Après des mois de préparation, il est finalement abattu dans sa Merced ...more

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Paperback, 442 pages

Published January 2010 by Grasset

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Jul 10, 2012 Jeffrey Keeten rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: ww2

”This is what I think: inventing a character in order to understand historical facts is like fabricating evidence. Or rather, in the words of my brother-in-law, with whom I’ve discussed all this: It’s like planting false proof at a crime scene where the floor is already strewn with incriminating evidence.

I don’t know how to describe him any other way except that he has a punchable face.

This is a book with a plot ensnared in the arduous process of conceiving a historical novel. Laurent Binet ...more

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Dec 05, 2017 Steven Godin rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favourites, france, world-war-two, historical-fiction

May, 4th, 1942 - the Heydrich residence. After filling their bellies with Venison steaks, Heydrich, Himmler and Goebbels are sat around the table playing cards, Lina Heydrich brings in a tray on which sits a large bottle of brandy, three glasses and a box of cigars. 'Don't wait up for me Reinhard dear, I am off to the theatre, Have fun boys'. Heydrich switches on the gramophone, and Schubert is a feast on the ears, the evening is in full swing. Both Himmler and Goebbels are blind drunk within th May, 4th, 1942 - the Heydrich residence. After filling their bellies with Venison steaks, Heydrich, Himmler and Goebbels are sat around the table playing cards, Lina Heydrich brings in a tray on which sits a large bottle of brandy, three glasses and a box of cigars. 'Don't wait up for me Reinhard dear, I am off to the theatre, Have fun boys'. Heydrich switches on the gramophone, and Schubert is a feast on the ears, the evening is in full swing. Both Himmler and Goebbels are blind drunk within the hour and start to wind up Heydrich on his marital problems. 'So, Reinhard, word is your old lady has been seeing the Führer behind your back'. 'What is it, can't get it up!' (laughter). 'That's a damn lie I tell you! how dare you smear my name! HOW DARE YOU!!, Sometimes I struggle to perform in the bedroom, it's the stress of this bloody war!, but me and my wife couldn't be happier. 'OK calm down, we were only having a little fun'. 'Fun?, you call that fun, us Nazis were not put on this earth to have fun, get out!, get out the pair of you!. Lina returns in the early hours and enters the bedroom, and hears what sounds like a little girl sobbing, she turns on the light, 'my darling, what is the matter, why are you shaking?'. 'Lina, I had the most horrible nightmare!, a month from now I am going to die at the hands of assassins!', Lina moves closer, her eyes avert from the tearful Heydrich to the sheets, 'Oh Reinhard, you wussy, you have only gone and wet the bed!'

Historically accurate?, of course not, I just made it up, I couldn't resist the temptation after learning just how evil a man Heydrich actually was. That's the great thing about fiction, when dealing with the facts, in this case WW2, the little things can't be 100% certain unless you were there in person, how do you go about filling in the gaps?, easy, you just guess, but make it seem believable, that's the problem Binet faced in writing this genius book. It's based on a true story, real names, real facts, but still reads like a suspense thriller after he adds his own interpretations on the finer details of history.

Back to Heydrich on a more serious note, I forgot what he looked like (not that it's a face I want to remember) so googled him, to think what this man did!, and what he witnessed with those cold and calculated eyes. Hope he eternally burns in hell. Now on to the book...

A brilliant novel!, with a great story that also happens to be true, by a gifted French writer amusingly anguished over the question of how to tell it. There's nothing not to like about Laurent Binet's acclaimed debut, and HHhH is certainly a thoroughly captivating performance, the last 50 or so pages...wow! Whether you find it something more than that will depend on how you feel about the application of a book about the Nazi security chief Reinhard Heydrich, who must be one of the most unfunny, truly evil, and hated figures in recorded history. But I like to think of this book more for it's hero's than for it's Nazi villains, two brave souls who knew there was a great chance of not returning alive from their daring mission to take the bastard Heydrich out. It's about his assassination, specifically, and the undersung Czech resistance heroes who carried it out; an angle that licenses a certain jauntiness in the tone. Heydrich's icily demonic character dominates the book, until the Czech heroes are slowly woken in to the story. Heydrich and his pivotal roles in the key atrocities of the era, from Kristallnacht to 'the final solution' itself, take up a substantial part of the narrative. And it's chilling stuff. The narrative is enlightened by Binet's playful anxieties about his girlfriend, mulling over his dreams, or even by his more obviously pertinent struggles over whether to invent the dialogue, or imagine the inner thoughts of his characters. And there are outbursts of opinion which really bother him, when trying to tie up lose ends. Was Heydrich's Mercedes black or green? Where about's did the parachutists land?, Which side of the train did the head of Czechoslovak secret services sit on during his clandestine trip through Germany? Etc...

Included there are nods to films and books that inspired Binet along the way, this work wouldn't have been the same without them, adding a freshness to a WW2 novel, as it's one of the most written about subjects ever. A subject that can sometimes be boring, not this. The book builds up to it's climactic Operation Anthropoid scenes involving our heroes Gabčík and Kubiš, that the best thriller writers would have been proud of. It's a plan that doesn't go according to plan, but still ends up getting results. There are crucial logistical points to be reckoned with, such as the topography of Prague streets or the disconcerting jamming tendency of the British-built Sten gun, which got stuck at the vital moment. Binet manages it all with stunning lucidity, and by the time I reached the devastating finale, the deepest of feelings had set in, I felt like lighting a candle for the incredibly brave men that risked all to take down such a huge figure in the Third Reich.

As for the 'Butcher of Prague' or the 'Blonde Beast' as he liked to be known, I hope he died in a lot of pain. He thoroughly deserved it. ...more

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Jul 31, 2012 Veeral rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: faschismus, world-war-ii-non-fiction, favorites, favorites-of-2012, read-in-2012

Let me tell you a story. A true story. A story that you might know, but only in passing.

This story took place in World War – II. To be exact, it was a mission. No, not a mission. Destiny, rather, of our heroes. Amongst numerous missions that were carried out in the War, this one should rank within the top 10 most important ones, in my opinion (And I have read about all the major ones).

So, let me tell you about this book.

Laurent Binet, the author, has named it HHhH.

What does "HHhH" mean?

It means ...more

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Nov 04, 2016 Agnieszka rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2016, biography-memoirs-letters, favorites, reviewed, ebook

No, it’s not invented ! What would be the point of inventing “ Nazism “ ?

Laurent Binet’s novel HHhH is actually two stories in one. Firstly, it's an exciting thriller and suspenseful novel about the assassination of Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, Himmler’s right hand or brain according to the title of the novel, Reinhard Heydrich. Novel is packed with well-known names from Nazi high echelons, in brief retrospectives Binet recaps events which led to Hitler’s accession to power, growth of a ...more

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Aug 20, 2018 Paul Bryant rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: novels, history-will-teach-us-nothing

REVIEW : SHORT VERSION

This is a hell of a story, told very engagingly. The last 50 pages are agonizing and heroic and you won’t forget them. Recommended.

REVIEW : LONG VERSION : A QUESTION OF DEFINITION

If I waddled around in an elaborate penguin costume loudly proclaiming that I was a penguin while swallowing fish whole, it wouldn’t make me a penguin. Even if I got all my friends to violently nod their heads and point at me and say yes, he’s a great old penguin, that one, sure he is. Even if I to ...more

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Aug 31, 2017 Fionnuala added it

Shelves: read-in-french, war, 2017, 21st-century-classics

One night while he was researching this book, Laurent Binet dreamt he was writing the key chapter. In the dream, he begins with a description of a black Mercedes sliding through the streets of Prague like a racer snake, slipping behind a building here, emerging from a tunnel there, but moving all the while towards the sharp bend between Vyšehradska street and Trojička street where two armed men await its arrival.

That same black Mercedes has a star role in the final version of the book too. It sh One night while he was researching this book, Laurent Binet dreamt he was writing the key chapter. In the dream, he begins with a description of a black Mercedes sliding through the streets of Prague like a racer snake, slipping behind a building here, emerging from a tunnel there, but moving all the while towards the sharp bend between Vyšehradska street and Trojička street where two armed men await its arrival.

That same black Mercedes has a star role in the final version of the book too. It shows up on one page, disappears on another, re-emerges further on - but note this: it changes colour along the way from black to dark green. Binet is very concerned with getting the facts right; the colour of the car that Himmler’s second in command, Reinhard Heydrich, was travelling in on the 27th of May 1942, matters. It must not be described as black if there's any chance that it was really green.

The story of the black/green Mercedes summarises the dilemma that makes reading this book so interesting. On the one hand, Binet enjoys making the car slither through the streets of Prague like a viper. He'd like to add lots of details to his scenario: what Heydrich had for breakfast that morning, what he was thinking about as he left his home, what he said to his chauffeur as the car wound its way through the streets of the old city. On the other hand, Binet wants to deal only in facts, the colour of the car and the exact time it reached the corner of Vyšehradska and Trojička. He wants to leave his imaginings where they belong - in the realm of fiction. After all, he points out, who could make up the Nazis? Who could make up the 'final solution'?

Nevertheless, Binet reluctantly recognises that fictionalised history succeeds better with readers than fact-based history writing. He offers us entertaining commentary on the many novels about WWII he has read, and the ones that focus on the Prague assasination attempt in particular. He's both fascinated and horrified by the way authors have dramatized this episode in history. His fascination encourages him to insert fictionalised passages into his own account, passages that draw the reader right in so that we immediately forget everything he's already said about preferring to stick to the facts. Then, when we’re comfortably wallowing in the warm water of his imaginings, he pulls the plug, leaving us shivering and confused. No, it couldn't have been like that he says, because since I wrote that, I discovered this and this, and anyway, no one can truly say how it was, any attempt to guess just becomes artificial.

So why doesn't he delete such passages, you might ask? If he feels it sounds artificial or if he's found new information, surely he should rewrite the scene? But that’s exactly where this book differs from most other books. Binet’s account is a process as much as a finished product and every part of the process is included. He skillfully drives his narrative towards a satisfactory conclusion, but he insists on taking us on a huge detour along the way, a detour that includes the history of everything related to his journey, and the many cul-de-sacs he encountered along the way. And the marvellous thing is that all the detours, all the accumulated journey notes, only serve to frame more perfectly the horrific background to the attempt on the life of Reinhard Heydrich, Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia, and originator of the 'final solution', by two intrepid Czech Resistence fighters, Jan Kubiš and Jozef Gabčík.
I wouldn’t want Binet to delete a single word. ...more

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Jul 03, 2012 Cindy Knoke rated it it was ok

I am addicted to reading about the history of WWII and I really wanted to like this book.
Binet's book however frustrated me. The constant insertion of the author into the text and his continuous use of the word "I" was incredibly distracting. Who was this book about precisely, the author or Heydrich? The purported topic, Heydrich was interesting, the author's pathos? Not so much.
His short chapter format consisting of 257 chapters, some of which were only a few sentences long, resulted in a cho ...more

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Dec 09, 2013 MJ Nicholls rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: pernod-and-gauloises, novels

Binet has written the world’s first (and please God the last) metafictional Nazi thriller. As one who baulks at the WW2 novel (how passé is “the war??”—been there, done that, babe), Binet’s self-commenting novel-about-a-novel is a refreshing addition to the legions of prize-winning tomes about lesser-known Nazis and atrocities. Heydrich is the topic—a high-ranking Nazi who could have been up there with Himmler and Goebbels on the mass-murdering-psychopaths-whose-names-are-forever-etched-into-his ...more

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Oct 10, 2017 Tony rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: wwii, autographed, french, top-10-2017

So, what is this exactly? It has won awards for fiction and the author calls it a novel, except when he says, “If this were a novel . . .”

The author intrudes, is a character: he is an author researching and writing about the May 27, 1942 assassination attempt by two Czechoslovakian parachutists against Reinhard Heydrich aka The Blond Beast, the Acting Reich Protectorate, the Hangman of Prague, the most dangerous man in the Third Reich. The title comes from another descriptor: Himmlers Hirn heiß ...more

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Jan 26, 2013 Elaine rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013

First, I wrestled with a considerable amount of guilt for reading this in English. I could have read this in French, but it would have been much longer and harder. I know enough about translation to be uncertain of how closely what I read resembled the original. But in the end, it was better to have read this than to have missed this because of my own stupid pride about works in translation. (This sort of personal interjection is actually rather influenced by the style of the book).

Second, the i First, I wrestled with a considerable amount of guilt for reading this in English. I could have read this in French, but it would have been much longer and harder. I know enough about translation to be uncertain of how closely what I read resembled the original. But in the end, it was better to have read this than to have missed this because of my own stupid pride about works in translation. (This sort of personal interjection is actually rather influenced by the style of the book).

Second, the interplay between first person narrative about writing this book (and Binet's commenting about what he has written) with the historical story takes some getting used to. I found the beginning disjointed and perhaps overly intellectualized.

In the end, though, I found the commentary intensely thought provoking (especially the explicit dialogue with books I have read,e.g., Europe Central, or think I should read, e.g., Les Bienveillantes/The Kindly Ones (by my college friend Jonathan, which I have not read partly from laziness and more from envy, but which I think Binet has convinced me I need to read)). And the story is unmeasurably compelling, once you (and Binet and the book) give in to the flow of history and narrative and heroism. I have read countless books about the Holocaust and WWII, but Binet's succint prose -- whose disarming directness is all the better at conveying tragedy -- brings some of the horrors freshly home.

The main episode he recounts -- the amazingly heroic assasination of Reinhard Heydrich and the aftermath, both good and bad -- was relatively new to me. And there is something healing and redemptive about reading about such human bravery and goodness in the face of utter evil. Especially, as Binet is at pains to recount, the heroism of the countless people who helped the Czech Resistance at ultimate cost to themselves. In the final chapters, Binet lets go of his post-modern self-consciousness and gives in to the force of the story he's telling and the characters (in spite of himself) that he's created, and the result is a moving and worthy tribute to the men and women he says he's trying to thank with this book. For me, ordinary people like Aunt Moravec, real people, who chose to do the right thing day in and day out at immesurable personal cost and who died with honor fighting against evil, are what allow us to go on believing in humanity. Binet, with his post-modern hang ups and reservations, gives us a particularly honest and relatable entree into that world.

Compelling and worth reading. ...more

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Jan 16, 2013 Dem rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: recommended, ww2, bookclub-reads, war

Jan Book Club Read. 4.5 Stars

HHhH by Laurent Binet is a novel filled with historically correct facts and traces the planning, execution and aftermath of Operation Anthropoid, the resistance’s successful plot to assassinate Heydrich in Prague. The two heroes of the novel are Jozef Gabcik and Jan Kubis, two amazingly brave assassins, but the main character of this novel is the “Butcher of Prague “ Reinhard Heydrich”.
“All the characters in this book are real and all events depicted are true whic
Jan Book Club Read. 4.5 Stars

HHhH by Laurent Binet is a novel filled with historically correct facts and traces the planning, execution and aftermath of Operation Anthropoid, the resistance’s successful plot to assassinate Heydrich in Prague. The two heroes of the novel are Jozef Gabcik and Jan Kubis, two amazingly brave assassins, but the main character of this novel is the “Butcher of Prague “ Reinhard Heydrich”.
“All the characters in this book are real and all events depicted are true which makes this novel such a compelling read.

I love historical fiction but now and again I like to read a book like this which is so thorough in its historical facts that I am not actually having to check did that actually happen, is it fact or fiction. So for me that was a great book. I had never heard of the horrifying happenings in the town called Lidice and while I had read a lot of books on the Holocaust I had never read about this and it really made me so sad that a town was wiped out so brutally in the name of a Butcher.

While reading this book you become aware of the authors obsession with the story. Binet is desperately aware of the recurring thought that he won’t do justice to the heroism of Gabcik and Kubis, just two men in a vast resistance that stood up to the horrors of Nazism. What must it have took for two men to put themselves in this position and to know what would face them. I think Binet captures this time and events in history very well.
The book is marketed as a novel and much of it has a novelistic style, even though it is dealing with historic figures and events,

The author is obsessively concerned with the challenges of fictionalising a real life narrative and constantly writes about his anguish over whether he should or should not invent situations or dialogue to enhance the story. Throughout the first half of the novel I really wanted him to stop this distracting practice of analyzing his thoughts but I soon got used to his style of writing and his thoughts and while I found that it a little distracting in the first half of the novel it did slightly lighten what could have been a very heavy novel. I also think that the author felt that his personal telling of this anguish with writing the story would appeal to people who might not perhaps read the book otherwise.(Just a thought).It certainly does not take away from the story as the end of this book really will stay with you for a very long time.

This is a book which I would recommend to readers who have an interest in history and World War Two, and want to learn more about Operation Anthropoid and Reinhard Heydrich.

...more

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Jan 15, 2020 Hugh rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: modern-lit, read-2020, translations

I am struggling to think of anything new to say about this much discussed book, so perhaps I should just recommend reading it, as it speaks for itself.

The book is a mixture of historical novel and self-analysis. The core story is the story of the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in Prague in 1942. There are three strands, the most interesting being the one in which Binet describes his own mistrust of historical fiction and his dislike of authorial invention - at times he interrupts his own acc ...more

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Jul 09, 2013 Toby rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommended to Toby by: Daniel Juckes

Shelves: translation, lit

“This scene is not really useful, and on top of that I practically made it up. I don't think I'm going to keep it.”

No other quote from this wonderful piece of post-modern literature could quite as effectively capture the tone and style of the content. HHhH is two narratives in one, a piece of creative non-fiction telling the story of Operation Anthropoid - the plot to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich - alongside which runs the journal of the Czech professor obsessed with commemorating the brave men “This scene is not really useful, and on top of that I practically made it up. I don't think I'm going to keep it.”

No other quote from this wonderful piece of post-modern literature could quite as effectively capture the tone and style of the content. HHhH is two narratives in one, a piece of creative non-fiction telling the story of Operation Anthropoid - the plot to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich - alongside which runs the journal of the Czech professor obsessed with commemorating the brave men involved in as accurate way as possible and his journey of self-realisation.

By running these two stories parallel to each other Binet dissects the tools of literature, comments on the nature of non-fiction and removes any sense of sensationalism that other authors might inadvertently resort to. This is not your typical wartime espionage novel and yet it keeps you on edge with just as much skill as your Le Carre's and Deighton's; thanks to the professors commentary you are never sure whether the wool is being pulled over your eyes from one scene to the next, you constantly question the nature of the narrative and why it is being presented in such a way, as I mentioned (only slightly tongue-in-cheek) to a friend whilst reading it you partially suspect that before the denouement you will discover that WWII didn't even happen, that Hitler was a fiction and our good narrator has been deceiving us all along. That takes a very special skill indeed.

And yet for all the literary pleasure this book provided and all the enjoyment at the audacity of the author and all the fascinating facts (that I have since verified were facts) discovered regarding that most evil period of modern history and the praise from such favourite authors of mine as Martin Amis and Bret Easton Ellis I struggled to finish the novel, I found it hard going at times for no discernible reason apart from it being the desired effect. And there are no page numbers. I can't even begin to make sense of why the lack of page numbers was so disconcerting to me as a reader. Just another way in which Binet highlights the tools of fiction I must assume.

It takes a certain type of reader to revel more in the struggle of a writer than in the real life daring deeds of heroic men but if you are one of those readers you are in for a real treat with this gripping and intense historical novel. ...more

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Jun 02, 2012 Bettie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: published-2009, paper-read, czech-prague, czech, historical-fiction, summer-2015, tbr-busting-2015, translation, biography, one-penny-wonder

Description: We are in Prague, in 1942. Two men have been enlisted to kill the head of the Gestapo. This is Operation Anthropoid: two Czechoslovakian parachutists sent by London plan to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich—head of the Nazi secret services, 'the hangman of Prague', 'the blond beast', 'the most dangerous man in the Third Reich'.

Heydrich works for Hitler's most powerful henchman, Heinrich Himmler, but in the SS they say 'HHhH': 'Himmlers Hirn heisst Heydrich'—Himmler's brain is called Hey ...more

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Sep 10, 2016 Margaret rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommended to Margaret by: Violet, in her review of The Quest for Corvo.

HHhH, what kind of title is that for a book? Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, the publishers of the 2012 fine English translation (by Sam Taylor) of Laurent Binet’s prize-winning French novel must have known they had a problem on their hands, so the book flap begins by explaining that HHhH is an acronym for a saying, which translated from German means “Himmler’s brain is called Heydrich.” Reinhard Heydrich, aka “The Butcher of Prague” was targeted for assassination by Czechoslovakia’s government in e HHhH, what kind of title is that for a book? Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, the publishers of the 2012 fine English translation (by Sam Taylor) of Laurent Binet’s prize-winning French novel must have known they had a problem on their hands, so the book flap begins by explaining that HHhH is an acronym for a saying, which translated from German means “Himmler’s brain is called Heydrich.” Reinhard Heydrich, aka “The Butcher of Prague” was targeted for assassination by Czechoslovakia’s government in exile in England, probably for mundane reasons of proving it was somehow important. Two men, Jan Kubis and Jozef Gabcik, underground parachutists (no pun intended), were recruited and trained in England after which they were dropped into occupied Czechoslovakia. Five months later they attacked and injured Heydrich, who died of those injuries eight days later.

This novel tells Heydrich’s story and the story of his assassins, all of which is both reasonably well-known and quite compelling, but that is far from all this novel does. The novel’s narrator (not officially Binet but like Binet) tells the story of the assassination and along with it, the story of the creation of a story of assassination. He ends up concluding about three-quarters through the novel that he is doing something other than just recounting history in a novelistic form: “I think I’m beginning to understand. What I’m writing is an infranovel” (241), a term Binet apparently made up. He does not define it; instead, the whole novel demonstrates what that is. What follows below are only a very few examples of what must amount to hundreds of examples. I can imagine this book inspiring dissertations on truth in novels. Not that I would want to write such a dissertation (life is too short) or actually read one, but the materials are clearly here.

In the beginning of this story we hear much more about the narrator than about the story he purports to tell. We hear how he first learned of this story from his father; how he took a job as a French teacher in Bratislava; how while there he fell in love with a Slovakian woman named Aurélia, who helped him learn more of the story during their five years together. While the narrative always aims towards the story of the assassination, these early sections of the novel are heavy on details about the narrator’s own life. As he learns more and more about his subject, the story he means to tell takes stronger hold of him and takes up more space on the page. Yet the narrator never disappears. He repeatedly interrupts his narrative to express his emotions about the information he has found.

In his discussion of the Munich Agreement and how it came about, he tries to explain Prime Minster of France’s Daladier’s silence in 1938 about the abandonment of Czechoslovakia in the Munich Agreement. He conjectures that perhaps shame had silenced Daladier, adding in parentheses: “If only it had choked him—him and all the others” (75). After this remark, he returns to his story. There are other similar outbursts showing strong hatred for his Nazi subjects and, later on, of love and admiration for the brave assassins.

After explaining how Jozef Gabcik decided to accept his mission to assassinate Heydrich, the narrator says, “That scene, like the one before it, is perfectly believable and totally made up. How impudent of me to turn a man into a puppet—a man who’s been dead for a long time, who cannot defend himself. To make him drink tea, when it might turn out that he liked only coffee. To make him put on two coats, when perhaps he had only one. To make him take the bus, when he could have taken the train. To decide that he left in the evening, rather than the morning. I am ashamed of myself” (104). He frequently addresses the problems that come about when he tries to tell a story and does not have all the details. And he adds that no matter how well he fills in his story, holes in the narrative will always remain.

In addition, he brings up other novels (e.g., Alan Burgess’s 1960 novel Seven Men at Daybreak and David Chako’s 2007 novel Like a Man) about the same topic. Since the narrator can’t find any mistakes in Chako’s novel “even with the very specific details that I had imagine, in a fit of slightly delirious pride, were perhaps known only to me—I am bound to trust what he writes. Suddenly I start questioning myself” (185). And the issue about which the narrator questions himself? It’s whether the Mercedes in which Heydrich is riding when the assassins attack is black or a very dark green! He concludes it’s black adding, “Anyway, I’m probably attaching too much importance to what is, at the end of the day, just a background detail. I know that. In fact it’s a classic symptom of neurosis. I must be anal-retentive. Let’s move on . . . “ (186). No fault of the narrator is too small to point out and criticize.

This book is replete with such discussion. I cannot do justice to the brilliance of this novel, of the many different ways Binet shows the truth about the horror by reminding us how it all took place while also telling us how a writer of such stories deals with all the problems of telling that story. There are many, many such passages where the narrator insists he needs to get the facts exactly right. He frequently disparages himself and his book when as he confesses that he made this or that up. And the sub- (or not actually so sub-) text here is that readers demand history become narrative, even though too often facts must be sifted (and shifted), bent, and completely imagined in order to create effective narrative. Our desire to hear our history as story is overwhelming. At the same time, the tone of his disparagement is often as playful as it is in the passages I quoted above. That playfulness keeps Binet’s real problems with how to tell a true story from getting too deep or too philosophical and overwhelming his novel. Instead, it brings them (and him) to a living breathing life. Yet all of this life and energy is in the midst of a most compelling recounting of coming to power, the career, and the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, one of the most heinous Nazis, the man who invented the “Final Solution.” While I can imagine that some readers might wish that the author just get to the story and stop all these shenanigans. I can also imagine that others cannot keep both Binet’s playfulness and the horrendous historical story he tells in their minds at the same time. It is demanding much that we do that. Yet I felt that his juxtaposition of the two to be the ultimate statement about our humanity; we are all this at once: potentially cruel and barbarous, serious about our craft, always seeking truth, wanting a great story, anxious about ourselves as we take on life’s burdens, and silly no matter who we are or what we do. I ended up loving this book. ...more

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Mar 21, 2012 Diane S ☔ rated it liked it

This was a very differently written type of historical fiction; a stream of consciousness novel where a narrator who happens to be writing a book about the assassination of Heydrich lets the reader in on all his thought processes, feelings, and personal life. In the beginning I found this fascinating as the narrator imparts many little known facts (at least by me) of Heydrich's early life and marriage, the forming of the Nazi party, Hitler, the Night of Long Knives and the forming of his securit ...more

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Jan 13, 2019 Edward rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: literary-fiction, 2019

This unusual novel is part autobiography, part history lesson, part adventure story, and part meditation on the absurdities of its own genre. And it manages to be engaging on each of these levels, each element reinforcing the significance of the action of the main plot, which is gripping and emotionally charged.

I learned a lot about the character of the people who made up the upper echelon of the Nazi party. It's hard to believe that these were real human beings who existed, and who were allowed ...more

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Jun 16, 2012 Dergrossest rated it it was amazing

I have had my fill of books about Nazis, but this clever little title was irresistible. And thank heaven it was since this story about the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich is absolutely brilliant. It was sort of a travelogue-type history in the manner of Tony Horowitz, although most of the travel in this book is through the author’s mind as he ruminates on the nature of historical biographies in general, wrestles with self-doubt as to whether he is up to the task of writing something original ...more

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Jun 29, 2017 Tim rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, world-war-two

In part this is a bit like the literary equivalent of one of those documentaries about the making of a famous film. On the one hand, the author tells the story of the assassination of Himmler’s right-hand man, Reinhard Heydrich and tells it compellingly well. It’s a fascinating story of an assassination that was botched but nevertheless eventually successful. We learn much about Heydrich and also about his two Czech assassins who were trained in the UK specifically to carry out the assassination ...more

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Aug 03, 2018 Eliza Rapsodia rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Todo el mundo

Recommended to Eliza by: Trotalibros

Shelves: on-my-shelf, historical-fiction

REVIEW IN ENGLISH

This story came to me because of a blogger friend that I really trust. I was able to approach one of the great stories -one of the thousands- that happened in the Second World War.

«The blond beast» «The butcher of Prague» «The man with the iron heart» -the latter given by Hitler himself- are some of the nicknames he had. Very different from the boy with a high-pitched voice that was called "The goat". The title of the novel is the initials of the German expression Himmlers Hirn heißt Heydrich: «Himmler's brain is called Heydrich» and refers to who is considered one of the most intelligent, dangerous and terrible men of the Third Reich: the Obergruppenführer (Lieutenant General) Reinhard Heydrich. Designated later as Reichsprotektor of Bohemia-Moravia (the Czech Republic today), Heydrich was also proclaimed as one of the architects of the final solution and was one of those directly responsible for the Holocaust.

The exiled Czech government in London watched helplessly as the Nazis controlled Czechoslovakia and murdered its people. Something had to be done. That's why in 1942, two members of the Czech Resistance landed on parachutes near Prague with a secret mission. Jan Kubiš (Czech) and Jozef Gabčík (Slovak) were in charge of Operation Anthropoid. They were in charge to assassinate The butcher of Prague, Reinhard Heydrich.

Jan Kubiš and Jozef Gabčík

I love to know more stories of the Second World War, those years that have been so fruitful for fiction and nonfiction. The author, French professor Laurent Binet, was so passionate about this story that he decided to write about this war heroes. But you most know this is not a traditional historical novel or a millimetric work of nonfiction.

HHhH is both an historical novel and the story of writting a novel. Metafiction all the way, Laurent tells us about his problems, his thoughts, his doubts: what he felt when entering the Prague museum and seeing Heydrich's black (or green) Mercedes; looking at the church wall of St. Cyril and St. Methodius, a place that hide the brave Czech resistance; getting frustrated by watching films that did not portray Heydrich well and sitting down to write a story that he loved so much that it was hard to let go. It is a different experience, he's not sure of certain facts and he let us know. Because time passes and details are erased, but the Czech will never forget the heroes who resisted and died for them.

The novel's singular structure has short and numbered chapters, almost episodic, without a strict chronological order. Binet does a great job by telling us many details he has investigated, even common things, like the boys had girlfriends in England, that Valčik had a dog he loved called Mole. We get to know the other part of the story: dangerous and cunning Reinhard Heydrich, Himmler's evil genius, who according to the book, even told someone that Hitler would lose the war. Binet gives body and thought to this man, one who was so ruthless and deadly and that it would cost us a lot to sympathize with him.

There's a movie of this book (I have to watch it) even though it's in english or that there aren't many Czech or German actors in the cast, any excuse is good to get to know this incredible story. Laurent wanted to remember these heroes: Josef Bublík, Jozef Gabčík, Jan Hrubý, Jan Kubiš, Josef Valčík, Adolf Opálka and Jaroslav Švarc, who faced more than 800 SS soldiers on June 18, 1942 in Prague and also the actions of so many anonymous people who helped the resistance and died for it.

HHhH is an interesting writting excercise about the past and how to write about it. Rescuing brave people from oblivion is its main achievement. People that are now heroes. And it's worth reading about them.

****************
RESEÑA EN ESPAÑOL

Esta historia me llegó por los comentarios muy positivos de Jan de Trotalibros y además que pude leer este libro ya que él mismo muy amablemente me lo regaló. Pude acercarme a una de las grandes historias —de las miles— que sucedieron en la Segunda guerra mundial.

«La bestia rubia» «El carnicero de Praga» «El hombre con el corazón de hierro» —este último dado por el propio Hitler—, son varios de los apodos que le acuñaron. Muy diferente del niño con voz aguda que molestaban llamándole «La cabra». El titulo de la novela son las siglas de la expresión alemana Himmlers Hirn heißt Heydrich: «El cerebro de Himmler se llama Heydrich» y se refiere al que es considerado uno de los hombres más inteligentes, peligrosos y despiadados del tercer Reich: el Obergruppenführer (Teniente general) Reinhard Heydrich. Jefe de la RSHA (Oficina central de seguridad del Reich) y segundo al mando de la SS. La RSHA fue creada por el Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler (antiguo criador de gallinas) y es el resultado de la fusión de la Geheime Staatspolizei (Gestapo), el Sicherheitsdienst (SD), la Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo) y la Kriminalpolizei (KriPo). Designado posteriormente como Reichsprotektor de Bohemia-Moravia (hoy la República Checa), Heydrich se proclamó también como uno de los artífices de la solución final y fue uno de los responsables directos del Holocausto.

El terror reinaba en el Protectorado. El gobierno checo en el exilio en Londres observaba con impotencia como los nazis controlaban Checoslovaquia y asesinaban a su gente. Había que hacer algo. Por eso en 1942, dos miembros de la Resistencia aterrizaron en paracaídas cerca de Praga con una misión secreta. Los soldados Jan Kubiš (checo) y Jozef Gabčík (eslovaco) fueron encargados de la Operación Antropoide, que se trataba ni más ni menos de asesinar al carnicero de Praga, a Reinhard Heydrich.

Jan Kubiš y Jozef Gabčík.

Siempre es muy gratificante conocer más historias de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, esos años que han sido tan fructíferos para la ficción y la no ficción. El autor, el profesor francés Laurent Binet, apasionado por estos hechos hasta límites cuestionables, se decidió investigar a fondo la historia de los hombres checos que arriesgaron sus vidas para ayudar a su patria. Pero hay que anotar que esta no es una novela histórica al uso o una reproducción milimetrada digna de los mejores trabajos de no ficción.

Fachada conservada de una ventana de la cripta de la Iglesia de San Cirilo y San Metodio.

HHhh es a la vez una novela histórica y una historia de cómo la escribió. Atravesada por la metaficción, Laurent nos cuenta sus dificultades, sus pensamientos, sus problemas: lo que sintió al entrar al museo de Praga y ver el Mercedes negro (o verde) de Heydrich, al observar la pared de la iglesia de san Cirilo y San Metodio, lugar que albergó a los valientes resistentes checos, al frustrarse y ver ciertas películas que no retrataban bien a Heydrich, al sentarse a escribir una historia que amaba tanto y de la que le costaba tanto desprenderse. Es un ejercicio diferente, en el que el autor no está seguro de muchas cosas y nos lo hace saber. Porque el tiempo pasa y los detalles se van borrando, pero el pueblo checo jamás olvidará a los héroes que resistieron y que murieron por ello.

Cillian Murphy como Jozef Gabčík y Jamie Dornan como Jan Kubiš

Su singular estructura está compuesta por textos cortos y numerados, casi episódicos, sin un orden cronológico estricto. Laurent se esfuerza notablemente por contarnos muchos detalles que ha investigado, hasta cosas nimias, como que los chicos tenían novias en Inglaterra y luego en Praga, que Valčik tenia un perro que adoraba llamado Mole y como una arma Sten que se traba es la culpable de tanto. Conocemos de buena mano al otro actor de la historia: el peligroso y astuto Reinhard Heydrich, el cerebro de Himmler, el que según el libro llegó a decirle a uno a su mando que Hitler perdería la guerra. Le da cuerpo y pensamiento a este hombre, uno que fue tan efectivo, tan mortífero y que nos costaría muchísimo simpatizar en algo con él.

Cartel de recompensa en alemán y checo por la captura de Josef Valčik

La novela ya fue adaptada al cine y aunque es un poco chocante que se hable en inglés o que no haya tantos actores checos o alemanes en el reparto, cualquier excusa es buena para que esta increíble historia se conozca. Porque Laurent se esforzó para que no se olviden a estos héroes: Josef Bublík, Jozef Gabčík, Jan Hrubý, Jan Kubiš, Josef Valčík, Adolf Opálka and Jaroslav Švarc, que se enfrentaron a más de 800 soldados del Heer y el Waffen-SS el 18 de junio de 1942 en Praga. El recuerdo de tantas personas anónimas que se encargaron de ayudar a los resistentes y que Laurent no quiere olvidar.

HHhH es un interesante ejercicio personal sobre el pasado y como escribir sobre él y un sentido y ameno esfuerzo para rescatar valientes personas del olvido. Que ahora son héroes pero para la humanidad ya son historia. Y vale la pena conocerla. ...more

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Feb 09, 2016 Fiona rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: highbrow-literachoor, comfort-zone-stretchers, in-translation, protodidact, the-past, politics-exclamation-mark, favourites, read-in-2016, worldview-shapers

The fact that HHhH isn't quite the book I was expecting to read is entirely the fault of the back cover. The last paragraph of the blurb reads:

All the characters in HHhH existed then or still exist now. All the events depicted are true. But alongside the nerve-shredding story of the preparations for the attack runs another story: when you are writing about real people, how do you resist the temptation to make things up?

If you have the Postmodern Klaxon going off in your head, you're not alone - ...more

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Jun 10, 2015 Sam Quixote rated it liked it · review of another edition

HHhH = Himmlers Hirn heist Heydrich, which in English means: Himmler’s brain is called Heydrich.

This is the true story of one of the most evil men who ever lived, Reinhard Heydrich, and Operation Anthropoid (also the original title of the book), the successful plot to assassinate him by the heroic pair, Jan Kubis and Jozek Gabcik.

Heydrich was Head of the Gestapo and one of the most feared men in Hitler’s Third Reich. He was central to the Final Solution (the formal planning behind the Holocaust) HHhH = Himmlers Hirn heist Heydrich, which in English means: Himmler’s brain is called Heydrich.

This is the true story of one of the most evil men who ever lived, Reinhard Heydrich, and Operation Anthropoid (also the original title of the book), the successful plot to assassinate him by the heroic pair, Jan Kubis and Jozek Gabcik.

Heydrich was Head of the Gestapo and one of the most feared men in Hitler’s Third Reich. He was central to the Final Solution (the formal planning behind the Holocaust) and, during his bloodthirsty reign as Acting Reich-Protector of Bohemia and Moravia (modern day Czechoslovakia), he became known alternately as the Hangman of Prague, the Butcher of Prague, and the Blond Beast. Even Hitler described him as “the man with the iron heart” – Hitler!!

So why is this seemingly non-fiction history book classed as fiction? Laurent Binet’s chatty, intrusive voice. In between relating the fascinating story behind Operation Anthropoid and Heydrich’s wretched life, Binet laments the nature of narrative history, constantly questioning the veracity of what he writes - how can he know Heydrich said this? and so on - even though he doesn’t go back and change any of it.

This affects the structure of the book so that it’s a constantly jerky read: facts are presented, then Binet goes back and picks apart his writing, throws in some neurotic rambling, goes off on several tangents, and then resumes the history. The short, choppy chapters – many just a line or two long - don’t make it any easier. Reading Binet’s writing in HHhH is simply exhausting! And that’s why it’s loosely termed fiction: Binet’s almost stream-of-consciousness-relating of what amounts to a heavily stylized history book.

The story behind Operation Anthropoid, Kubis and Gabcik’s extremely sloppy execution of the plan, and it’s glorious and tragic aftermath, is the stuff of legend. I’m not even going to attempt relating the details here but it’s truly thrilling material whose nuances beggar belief – and yet it all happened. It’s no wonder Kubis and Gabcik became national heroes.

You will learn a lot from this book though unfortunately Binet ruins it with his utterly irritating narration and laboured treatment of the facts. Five stars for the history, one star for Binet’s writing = three stars even. The history is interesting, the author is not. There’s probably a great book out there about Heydrich and Operation Anthropoid but HHhH ain’t it. ...more

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Jan 28, 2013 Darwin8u rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013

“Memory is of no use to the remembered, only to those who remember. We build ourselves with memory and console ourselves with memory.”
― Laurent Binet, HHhH

description

An interesting narrative about the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich. The title comes from the SS phrase: "Himlers Hirn heisst Heydrich" ("Himmler's brain is called Heydrich"). Instead of telling the story as a straight historical narrative, Laurent Binet weaves himself throughout the main narrative. It becomes in parts a contrived post-mod ...more

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Jul 19, 2017 Meike rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2017-read, france, politics

PRIX GONCOURT DU PREMIER ROMAN // As a novelist, how do you do justice to the men who had to die after they managed to kill Nazi-leader Reinhard Heydrich? This is the main topic of Binet's brilliant metafictional book about an author who writes a novel about the assassination of the so-called "butcher of Prague". One of the most powerful and brutal Nazis (even Hitler named him "the man with the iron heart"), Heydrich simultaneously held the positions of SS Senior Group Leader, Chief of Police, C PRIX GONCOURT DU PREMIER ROMAN // As a novelist, how do you do justice to the men who had to die after they managed to kill Nazi-leader Reinhard Heydrich? This is the main topic of Binet's brilliant metafictional book about an author who writes a novel about the assassination of the so-called "butcher of Prague". One of the most powerful and brutal Nazis (even Hitler named him "the man with the iron heart"), Heydrich simultaneously held the positions of SS Senior Group Leader, Chief of Police, Chief of the Reich Main Security Office, and Acting Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia (a territory that was formerly part of Czechoslovakia), where he ordered the strategic execution of tens of thousands of people in order to break civil resistance to the German occupation and to ethnically cleanse the area. As these mass shootings did not seem effective enough to him, Heydrich became one of the main architects of the "final solution to the Jewish question"- the Nazi euphemism for the holocaust - with its concentration camps and gas chambers.

Binet's narrator (who might be identical with Binet himself, though it is never made unambiguously clear in the text) wants to tell the story of those who managed to kill that man: Jozef Gabčík (Slovak) and Jan Kubiš (Czech), members of the Czechoslovakian army in exile, who were trained in England and flown to the Protectorate to carry out their dangerous mission. So while reading the story of those two soldiers, we are also reading the story of the man who writes their story: He tells us what inspired him to start the novel (and by that gives information on his perspective), he takes us along on his research trips and discusses the ambiguities and blank spaces he encounters, he comments on other fictional books on the topic that he reads, he lets us know how his writing project intersects with and affects his private life, and he shares his meditations and qualms about whether it is okay to fictionalize real people who really suffered and really died in a monstrous war.

By doing that, Binet walks the line between history and literature, he presents the classic dilemmas and restrictions of objective writing, and illuminates the strengths and weaknesses of literary fiction: The more the narrator learns about Gabčík and Kubiš, the more he identifies with them - he loses more and more of his objectivity, but he comes closer to a truth that can only be revealed by literature, as it involves emotions and identification. The narrator imagines himself being with his protagonists, he empathically takes educated guesses regarding what might have happened when he does not have proof, he imagines how Gabčík, Kubiš, and other members of the resistance must have felt and reveals his own feelings.

Of course we also learn a lot about Heydrich which is crucial to the understanding of the whole story, but Binet does not want to make this book about "the blond beast", but about those who fought him. It is really brilliant how Binet takes us along on the journey of the protagonists and the narrator, who of course in this case is also a protagonist - the narrative becomes a multi-layered maelstrom, compelling and inescapable. Brilliant, daring writing. ...more

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Nov 15, 2018 Charlie Miller rated it really liked it

Shelves: novel

A ballsy, albeit somewhat messy novelisation of the extended story behind the assassination of the Blonde Beast.
Binet hopes to captivate the reader with endless proofs of his obsession with the subject. Speaking from the first person, he does in part succeed- it's certainly a stunning debut novel, and there is some fantastic use of language in the English version. The true story itself however, brought out from Binet's hard work, is what really carries this book at chest height the whole way.

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Mar 10, 2018 Marc rated it it was ok

Shelves: french-literature, holocaust, postmodernism, nazism

As already indicated by so many other readers, this is not just the historical account of the attack on Reinhard Heydrich, one of the cruelest Nazi top men, in 1942 in Prague. That account is certainly there, and is quite excitingly written and shuddering by the horrible facts that are involved. But Binet presents a much more complex book. The author formally shows how he wrote this book and how he wrestled with various aspects of the historical métier (are my sources reliable, have I presented As already indicated by so many other readers, this is not just the historical account of the attack on Reinhard Heydrich, one of the cruelest Nazi top men, in 1942 in Prague. That account is certainly there, and is quite excitingly written and shuddering by the horrible facts that are involved. But Binet presents a much more complex book. The author formally shows how he wrote this book and how he wrestled with various aspects of the historical métier (are my sources reliable, have I presented the facts correctly, can I put fictional dialogues in the mouth of historical figures, have other authors and filmmakers given a correct version?). This hesitant approach is very disturbing for some readers, especially because Binet constantly pauses his story, sometimes returns to certain scenes and gives a completely differently version. That way he gives the impression of presenting a fair and honest story, and that seems deserving and at least interesting.

Unfortunately, Binet clearly plays a game with the reader. Because if you read carefully, you will notice that Binet - even after his corrections - constantly fools the reader. On the one hand, by his critical sense, he distances himself from his subject (as befits a historian), but on the other hand he regularly expresses his admiration for the resistance fighters who committed the attack and their helpers, for the Czech people in general (and especially the women, who are repeatedly called the most beautiful in the world), and between the lines even for Heydrich himself (who is presented as a monster, but who is also admired for its straightforwardness, thoroughness and cunning). And finally, - for the people familiar with French history -, he offers some covered and open contempt for the attitude of his compatriots in the Second World War. In other words, this is at least as much a novel about Binet himself (and his personal involvement in the world of today) as about Heydrich and the attackers. This is especially evident in Binet's unsurpassed criticism of Jonathan Littell's novel "Les Bienveillants", which also dealed with Nazi horrors, but has made it into a Wagnerian epic. That double-sidedness of Binet's book (I guess you can call it a late postmodernist novel) is quite interesting, but I do not think it is entirely successful. ...more

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Dec 10, 2019 Matt rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: germany-nazis-ww2, meta-fiction

I meant to write something really witty here, something with a lot of sarcasm, and use it to explain why I didn’t like the book, despite all the strengths it undoubtedly has. But then I remembered that this is exactly the reason why Binet’s text didn’t work for me. Call me old-fashioned, but irony and flippant remarks in connection with Heydrich and the Holocaust just don’t harmonize.
(Chapter 250 is great though)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAl ...more

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Aug 12, 2014 Dominic rated it really liked it

The book is not without its flaws, towards the end it goes a little haywire with the dates and so on but for all that, it retains a certain humility, charm and (hopefully) it's own corner as a WW2 meta-fiction thriler. As a novel, it's Marmite - you're either going to love it or hate it.

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Sep 28, 2018 William2 marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Flat flat flat. No pretense of style. Prose stripped of the usual novelistic devices. The book is about the assassination of Reinhardt Heydrich—a Nazi SS officer overseeing occupied Bohemia and Moravia, and master planner of The Holocaust—by British organized members of the Czechoslovak resistance in 1942. It worked. Heydrich was slain. But in reprisal the Nazis wiped out the town of Lidice, killing more than 350 civilians. The novel’s done à la Julia Blackburn; that is, mixed with bits of trave ...more

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Apr 06, 2018 Marc rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: translated-so-me-can-read, historical-fiction, chaos-treasure-hunt-4, postmodern-avantgarde-experimental, owned, first-book-i-read-by-this-author

At one point Binet describes this book as a infranovel. Think about that for a second. It's like a novel underlying the narrative, a fiction beneath the prose. What makes this book so fascinating is that it not only tells the story of Heydrich's assassination, but tells the story of Binet trying to tell this story and all that it means to write history. Where does any story begin and end and how does one keep from getting sucked down a thousand historical tributaries in the process of trying to ...more

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Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Madison Mega-Mara...: #90 - HHhH (yes, that's really the title of a book!)	1	4	Oct 01, 2014 02:05AM
The Readers: Book #14; HHhH - Laurent Binet (Oct 2013)	3	62	Nov 08, 2013 06:05AM
Goodreads Librari...: ebook to hardcover	5	31	Jul 19, 2013 10:22AM
21st Century Lite...: HHhH - An Unreliable Narrator, or a Comment on Human Nature? (April 2013)	14	86	May 12, 2013 08:24AM

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About Laurent Binet

Laurent Binet

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Son of an historian, Binet was born in Paris, graduated from University of Paris in literature, and taught literature in Parisian suburb and eventually at University. He was awarded the 2010 Prix Goncourt du Premier Roman for his first novel, HHhH.

Laurent Binet est né à Paris. Il a effectué son service militaire en Slovaquie et a partagé son temps entre Paris et Prague pendant plusieurs années. Ag ...more