Himmlers Hirn heisst Heydrich, they used to quip in SS headquarters: Himmler’s brain is called Heydrich. He was the Nazi who actually looked like a Nazi. Blond, tall, good at games, Reinhard Heydrich was their great white hope: the second generation, no less, who would steer the Reich into the 60s and 70s and beyond. His assassination in 1942 by Czech and Slovak agents, the imponderably brave Jan Kubiš and Jozef Gabčík, brought upon the small village of Lidice an atrocious retribution. 173 men and boys were shot; the buildings razed to the ground; the women and children deported to death camps. Here was the true face of Nazism, in all its bestial rage. Laurent Binet’s novel, like ‘The Kindly Ones’ a Prix Goncourt winner, does not disappoint. ‘HHhH’ has the pace of Frederick Forsyth, the charm and intelligence of Kundera or Havel. We learn within a few pages that this is to be no ordinary wartime yarn. Binet tells us about the research he has done, what he has found out, what remains forever hidden; he tells us how annoying it is that three of his characters have the same surname; he shows draft chapters to his girlfriend, who deplores his careless use of cliché; he agrees, and says they will have to be re-done; he argues with his publishers about what to call the book, his preference being for ‘Operation Anthropoid’, the code-name chosen by SOE; they tell him it’s a stupid title: everyone will assume he has written science fiction. Put like that, it sounds unbearable, like the worst excesses of Derrida: not so much Day of the Jackal as Day of the Jackass. It is especially brave to apply this technique to a genre that has resisted, with good cause, the fatuous plague of deconstructionism. And yet, against all the odds, ‘HHhH’ is a triumph. Binet is a wholly likeable narrator, obsessed with making his novel as accurate and as fair to its heroes as possible: the result is a work that manages to be both frolicsome and moving. I would love to know what the Czech critics make of this book. I hope they will see in it a tribute to their nation’s indefatigable, continent-enhancing playfulness.

I read a bit about Binet and his style before reading this so I wasn't expecting straight forward historical fiction here, I like the style and the narrator's struggle with the truth in the telling. I imagine a lot of people will expect something else on picking up this novel but for me it worked well.

I don't actually have enough words to describe how much I loved this book or how absolutely genius it is. Almost entirely factual, not really fiction at all, except it is a novel. But not really. Hard to explain so you'll just have to read it. World War II, the story of an assassination attempt on Heydrich. It's all the more gripping and moving because it all really happened, and more gripping and moving again because of Binet's passion and talent. Playing with form in a most unique manner, this is certainly one of the strangest and best books I've ever read. 5 stars, lamenting the fact I only have 5 to give.

..'HHhH' is one of those books that is so brilliant, it almost makes writing a review of it a bit pointless. Perhaps 'HHhH is brilliant in every way' is really all that needs to be said, or read, in a review of it!! But of course that kind of brevity may not do justice to a novel as good as this and more selfishly and more importantly, there is little point in writing a review here if I'm only going to use one sentence! From the front cover to the last page, everything about this is book is clever, different and memorable, and for all the right reasons. It tells the story of the attempted assassination of Himmler's right hand man, Reinhard Heydrich, by members of the Czech resistance in 1942. Of course "right hand man" doesn't give you a sense of just how evil and integral Heydrich was within the Nazi heirarchy so perhaps his nicknames will. This man was variously known as 'the Blond Beast', 'the Hangman Of Prague', 'the most dangerous man in the Third Reich', and from Hitler himself 'The Man With The Iron Heart'. The title of the novel refers to Heydrich's influence and power being frequently described through the chilling phrase "Himmler's brain is called Heydrich" which in German is 'Himmler's Hirn heisst Heydrich" (HHhH). The story follows the rise of Heydrich through the ranks till he reaches the peak of being Himmler's number two, envied, feared, depended upon, and mistrusted, all in equal measure, by Heydrich, by other high ranking Nazi's and by those under his command. His appointment as Protector of Bohemia and Moravia gives Heydrich carte blanche to rule ruthlessly, mercilessly and with real cunning, over this Czech part of the Nazi conquered territories. With the Czech resistance almost neutered, the President in exile needs a way to reinvigorate the Resistance, make the Allies sit up and notice the Czechs, and to strike a blow at the heart of the German occupation in their country. And so Operation Anthropoid is born, which sees Czech parachutists sent on a daring mission to assassinate Heydrich in Prague. The book intersperses the mission of the parachutists, Jozef Gabcik and Jan Kubis, with the machinations of Heydrich and the Nazi hierarchy in their rule over much of Europe and inevitably in their treatment of the Jewish population in those countries. I won't go any further on the details of the plot save to say it would be an incredible story of bravery, tragedy and betrayal if it was the production of a fertile imagination - when you then consider that this is historical fact, it is a privilege to read it. What makes HHhH so special is that it is not only a fantastic read in terms of plot, characterisation, and setting, but it's also brilliantly written - in fact I've never read anything quite like it. And because I've never read anything like it before, I'm struggling to get across just what makes the way it's structured so special. It's in many ways a work of non-fiction as it's meticulously researched and yet it's written in the form of a novel. But what makes this book so memorable, is that it goes way beyond simply telling the heroic tale of the parachutists and the awful, tragic aftermath of their actions. It takes historical fiction as a genre and the structure, feel and tone of historical fiction and simply turns it on its head! One of the inevitable tensions in historical fiction is the balance between fact and imagination and connnected to that, the extent to which the fictional aspects do justice to the factual events. What Laurent Binet does with this tension, is to take that internal dialogue and debate that he's gone through as the author and put in into the novel. Consequently over 257 very short chapters (there are no page numbers) he not only explores Heydrich, Kubis and Gabcik but he describes the research, he sets out the uncertainties over imagined dialogues and thoughts of the characters, and he masterfully personalises all of this with his own thoughts, fears, anxieties and views about the book and about the characters as he writes it. The best way I can describe it is to say that this isn't non-fiction but it isn't a historical fiction novel either. So I'll settle for describing it as the first non-fiction novel I've ever read! Most of the books I read I enjoy. Several of them are so good, they get the accolade of being pronounced to my family as "TERRIFIC!" and this one word is accompanied by a theatrical but symbolic closing of the book for the last time to signify 'the end', signify that I loved it and give the hint that it's time to put the kettle on! However sometimes I read a book where even "TERRIFIC" isn't enough to do it justice. These books get the accolade of being pronounced as "THAT'S ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS I'VE READ FOR SOME TIME!" (although as my partner often points out "you said that last week too!"). But this is even a step beyond my usual enjoyment of books and my typical hyperbole about them. HHhH is simply one of the best books I have ever read and I can't recommend it highly enough - if you only ever take a recommendation on a book from me once in your life, make it this one! You'll be glad you did!

Reinhard Heydrich..."the most dangerous man in the Third Reich, the Hangman of Prague, the Butcher, the Blond Beast, the Goat"....has an unenviable reputation of being one of the most vicious and ruthless Nazi thugs during the second world war. As well as being a master swordsman, an accomplished violinist, he was equally up to the task of murder, genocide and the removal of any human being that did not conform to the Aryan idea of the master race. HHhH by Lauren Binet creates a fictional account, from the known facts, of the events leading up to and including the death of Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich in Prague on June 4th 1942. It is an unusual book written in a very readable style and as an introduction to the world of this ruthless man makes a worthwhile contribution. I particularly enjoyed (if this is the correct term) the tension and the build up to the to the assassination by two specially trained agents, Jozek Gabcik and Jan Kubis. The aftermath and reprisals of the Nazis was a heartless and cowardly way to break the will of the Czech populace reminding them of their need for subservience to the mighty German overlord.