The Dog King | Fiction - www.zzdbook.com

The Dog King

Sep 15, 2025 4:51 AM

Author:Christoph Ransmayr

The Dog King

The novel is set just after World War Two, in a fictitious Germany. The Allies have decided to punish the country for Nazi war crimes by forcing it to develop back in to a pre-industrial society. All the achievements of technology - railways, streets, power, ships - have been destroyed or suspended, and in the village where The Kitahara Syndrome is set, villagers are forced to farm the land with primative tools and scavenge scrap yards. Memories of German war crimes are kept alive by bizarre rituals of remembrance: villagers are forced to dress as concentration camp inmates and act out the ceremonies of torture. This is the background to the story which focuses on three characters and the strange links that bind them.

Reviews

Her novels are still very much to be enjoyed ... Any writer who can both educate and thrill a reader of any age deserves to be remembered and find new fans ... One only has to look at the TV/Media to see that the appetite for this kind of writing is still very much there

—— Matt Bates , WH Smith Travel

Jean Plaidy doesn't just write the history, she makes it come alive.

—— Julia Moffat, RNA

Miss Plaidy has skillfully entwined their [Anne Boleyn & Catherine Howard] two stories.

—— Sunday Times

Plaidy excels at blending history with romance and drama

—— New York Times

Full-blooded, dramatic, exciting

—— Observer

This spirited novel is in the best tradition of historical fiction.Action is swift, conversation natural, background authentic...Plaidy paints the truth as she sees it.It is difficult to present the case of his wives and still be fair to Henry; that this is accomplished makes the book a conspicuous success.

—— Birmingham Post

This is at once an exciting and an intelligent novel

—— Truth Magazine

An enthralling story of a grim period of history, told with rare skill

—— Aberdeen Press and Journal

'A grand recounting of the second Punic War...Durham's epic is truly a big, magnificent, sprawling story complete with a sizable cast of compelling characters, intricately drawn battle scenes and fluid, graceful prose'

—— Booklist (starred review)

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