Eight Days in May

Superb ... excellent and admirably succinct. -- David Aaronovitch * The Times * Ullrich delivers a punchy account that is a proper page-turner ... there is still plenty to say about immediate postwar Germany. -- Giles MacDonogh * Financial Times * Strongly written and deeply researched ... a vital and often vibrant account of eight days when people all across Europe were suspended in confusion and chaos. * Kirkus * The last days of the Third Reich have often been told, but seldom with the verve, perception and elegance of Volker Ulrich's rich narrative. For Western nations that have never faced comprehensive and destructive defeat, this is an instructive lesson in how societies cope with the devastating reality of a surrender that they grimly await. -- Richard Overy A fast-paced, brilliant recounting of the turbulent last days of the Third Reich. With all the energy and chaos of a Jackson Pollock canvas, Eight Days in May evokes the complete and utter chaos of a collapsing society. We see victor and vanquished, persecutor and victim, and witness an empire as it falls from its savage heights to the depths of a despised and defeated nation. -- Helmut Walser Smith, author of Germany: A Nation in its Time The last chapter of the Nazi regime, just before its fall, is perhaps the most interesting. And Volker Ulrich manages to cover the days after Hitler's suicide with brilliant prose, and excellent original research. -- Norman Ohler, author of Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich Volker Ulrich's compact, gripping narration brings to life the death throes of the Nazi regime as individual acts of delusion, desperation and resignation. This vivid mosaic of German reactions to defeat is a suspenseful account and original depiction of the ambivalence and disbelief of those who had been spellbound by Hitler -- Wendy Lower, author of The Ravine