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The Castle in the Forest
By Norman Mailer
No career in modern American writing is at once so brilliant, varied and controversial as that of Norman Mailer. In a span of more than six decades, Mailer has covered subjects ranging from World War Two to Ancient Egypt, from the march on the Pentagon to Marilyn Monroe, from Henry Miller and Mohammad Ali to Jesus Christ. Now, in The Castle in the Forest, his first major work of fiction in more than a decade, Mailer offers what may be his consummate literary endeavour – he has set out to explore the evil of Adolf Hitler. The narrator, a mysterious SS man, who is later revealed to be an exceptional presence, gives us young Adolf from birth, as well as Hitler’s father and mother, his sisters and brothers and the intimate details of his childhood and adolescence in an energetic and absorbing family saga.
A tapestry of unforgettable characters, The Castle in the Forest delivers its playful twists and surprises with astonishing insight into the nature of the struggle between good and evil that exists in us all.
At its core is a hypothesis that makes this novel a work of stunning originality. Now, on the eve of his 84th birthday, Norman Mailer may well be saying more than he ever has before.
Available in paperback at 18.50 euros
