HHhH
The assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in Prague in 1942 becomes both a gripping account of resistance and a writer’s investigation into the boundary between historical truth and literary invention.
In HHhH, Laurent Binet reconstructs the mission to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich, one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi regime. At its centre are Jozef Gabčík, a Slovak, and Jan Kubiš, a Czech: resistance fighters trained in Britain and sent back to their occupied homeland. Their assignment takes them to Prague, where they must strike at a man whose authority rests on terror.
Alongside their preparations, Binet traces Heydrich’s rise through the Nazi apparatus. The mission also reveals the importance of the people who shelter the parachutists, pass on information and make resistance possible under occupation.
Yet this is also a novel about writing history. The narrator questions his sources, revisits his decisions and challenges his own impulse to invent. Can he describe a historical person’s thoughts without evidence? Does an effective scene bring readers closer to the past, or replace it with something more convenient?
Binet combines the suspense of a wartime operation with an inquiry into the responsibilities of storytelling. His tribute to courage and resistance continually asks how literature can preserve real lives without turning them into fictional possessions.
One copy is available
