Antony Beevor - Berlin: The Downfall, 1945

PENGUIN BOOKS
BERLIN

The outstanding piece of non-fiction this year. His last book, Stalingrad was, I thought, as good as it gets. But Berlin is even better. If you ever needed reminding of why war is something we should move heaven and earth to avoid, this will do it Jeremy Paxman, Guardian

Once youve read it, itll stay with you forever. What a book! Barbara Trapido, Observer

Beevor tells the savage, gripping story of the fall of the city with brilliance and a humane attention to the impact of an epic battle on fragile, individual lives. His powerful account lays bare the nightmarish sordidness of German fascism, with its back to the wall, buying a few more days at the expense of thousands of lives Helen Dunmore, The Times

Antony Beevor has become justly celebrated for Stalingrad, and his new book, Berlin: The Downfall 1945, lives up to all his fans expectations. Beevor has explored Russian and German sources with his customary industry, to produce a gripping and harrowing narrative of the citys fall to the Red Army in 1945 Max Hastings, Sunday Telegraph

Essential reading Michael Howard, The Times Literary Supplement

This is a brilliantly researched book, all the more effective because of Beevors spare and unemotional style Sue McGregor, Daily Telegraph

The narrative onslaught of Beevors book is tremendous Iain Finlayson, The Times

An appalling and gripping story Margaret Macmillan, Sunday Telegraph

I read it like a novel it does make you feel as if you know what it might have been like to be there Anne Applebaum, Evening Standard

The style contributes to the account itself, a masterful mixture of narrative finesse and scrupulousness towards the facts. In both categories we are witnessing an author at the height of his art Thomas Kielinger, Die Welt

The best of five exemplary works of history is Beevors Berlin. The story has been told many times, but Beevor brings a distinctive combination of gifts to it. Not merely is he a lucid chronicler of military tactics, strategy and maneuvers, but he has a sympathetic eye for the ordinary people who became wars innocent victims in this case the uncountable thousands of women who were raped and brutalized by the Red Army as it raced to the prize that was Berlin Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post

Riveting, magnificent masterly but shocking. It simply makes [all previous histories] obsolete at a stroke Independent

Beevor gives an exceptionally clear account of complicated military movements and the reasoning of the commanders responsible for them. But he is also sensitive to the real casualties of war. Boys whose anxious faces disappeared within man-sized helmets; women who managed to feed their babies between multiple gang rapes; and elderly folk who found themselves in the midst of hell because they were loath to leave a family farm or a spouses grave. The result is a masterpiece of modern historical writing Michael Burleigh, Guardian

Beevor, a British historian of great distinction and range, once more demonstrates his mastery of his sources, including newly discovered material from Soviet archives Gordon Craig, New York Review of Books

Quite splendid. Combines a calm and scholarly narrative with an unrelenting moral indignation at what he has uncovered. Berlin stands as a superbly lucid examination of one of the most dreadful battles in world history Irish Times

A compelling piece of historical description and assessment, the more important because some of Beevors Russian archival sources may not be available in future Alan Judd, Daily Telegraph

Superlative. The days and events leading to the final collapse of Berlin are recreated vividly and faithfully. It is an education Independent on Sunday

Magisterial. This is an epic story, epically told: chilling, insightful, analytical, desperately moving. From the past at its worst, Antony Beevor has fashioned history at its best Scotsman

A clear window into that dark, awful past for those in Europe or anywhere else who have not known wars horrors Time

Reading Berlin is like viewing some enormous, latter-day Hieronymous Bosch painting of the human race in total meltdown. You cant comprehend its entirety at first glance, because each of the fascinating details compels your attention Boston Herald

A devastating account New Statesman

Chilling, authoritative Beevor magnificently captures the true pity of war Daily Mail

Digging deep into Soviet files, personal diaries and memoirs Beevor brings vividly alive the final days of the doomed metropolis. Its in his eye for the chilling detail about ordinary people and soldiers caught up in the maelstrom of defeat that Beevor so magnificently captures the true pity of war. Compelling, admirably readable and fresh David Stafford, Evening Standard

Immaculately assembled, meticulous exposition. With an epic sweep worthy of Tolstoy, Beevor has produced a superlative sequel to Stalingrad The Times

A horrifyingly vivid account of the Fall of Berlin in 1945. Beevor handles his subject sensitively and wisely Daily Telegraph

Hugely impressive. Beevor is a superb writer, a diligent researcher and a master of detail Chicago Tribune

Beevor has created haunting images of the wars final days the best account yet written Carlo DEste, New York Times

Antony Beevor was educated at Winchester and Sandhurst. A regular officer in the 11th Hussars, he served in Germany and England. He has published several novels, while his works of non-fiction include The Spanish Civil War, Crete: The Battle and the Resistance, which won the 1993 Runciman Award, Stalingrad and Berlin: The Downfall 1945. With his wife, Artemis Cooper, he wrote Paris After the Liberation: 19441949. Stalingrad was awarded the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-fiction, the Wolfson History Prize and the Hawthornden Prize in 1999. It became a number-one bestseller both in hardback and paperback, the UK edition alone selling over half a million copies. It is being published around the world in twenty-four translations. Berlin: The Downfall 1945 was also a number-one bestseller and is being translated into twenty-four languages. Most of his titles are published by Penguin.

Antony Beevor is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Chevalier de LOrdre des Arts et des Lettres in France. In 2003, he received the first Longman-History Today Trustees Award. He was the 20022003 Lees-Knowles lecturer at Cambridge and is a visiting professor at Birkbeck College, University of London.

BERLIN

THE DOWNFALL 1945

Antony Beevor

PENGUIN BOOKS

PENGUIN BOOKS

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