Synopsis
A gripping tale of failed diplomacy and the catastrophic momentum that led to World War II
Winner of the 2017 Prix Goncourt, Éric Vuillard's novel The Order of the Day offers a mesmerising account of the pivotal meetings between European powers in the run-up to World War Two. Through a series of vignettes, Vuillard reveals the broken relationships and political machinations that set the stage for war.
German industrialists gather to lend their support to Adolf Hitler, while the Austrian Chancellor realises too late that he has wandered into a trap. Winston Churchill and Neville Chamberlain bid farewell to Joachim von Ribbentrop, the future Foreign Minister in the Nazi government, over a tense luncheon.
Suffused with dramatic tension, The Order of the Day is an unforgettable novel that illuminates how the actions of a few powerful men brought the world to the brink of war. Vuillard's gripping prose and keen eye for historical detail make this a must-read for fans of historical fiction and political thrillers alike.
Details
10 January 2019
9781509889983Reviews
A tightly paced and gripping read . . . Vuillard has written a magnificently entertaining account that manages to capture the wild and uneven emotional climate of the 1930s and speaks too to our own era of liars, demagogues and politics as farce, which, as Vuillard deftly shows us, can slide all too quickly into tragedy.Andrew Hussey, Observer
A thoroughly gripping and mesmerising work of black comedy and political disaster. It seems designed single-mindedly to remind us that, as it says, “Great catastrophes often creep up on us in tiny steps.Guardian
Remarkable . . . It captures the bizarre blend of wishful thinking, clownish self-importance, and cold calculation that characterized many of the Nazis’ powerful enablers.New Yorker
Gripping . . . The method of [The Order of the Day] is to peel away the veils of dissimulation, disguise and self-justification that conspire to make historical disasters appear as just the way things happen.Wall Street Journal
