Get Your Free Audiobook

  • In the Garden of Beasts

  • Love and terror in Hitler's Berlin
  • Written by: Erik Larson
  • Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
  • Length: 12 hrs and 52 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (2 ratings)

Prime logo New to Audible Prime Member exclusive:
2 credits with free trial
1 credit a month to use on any title to download and keep
Listen to anything from the Plus Catalogue—thousands of Audible Originals, podcasts and audiobooks
Download titles to your library and listen offline
₹199 per month after 30-day trial. Cancel anytime.
In the Garden of Beasts cover art

In the Garden of Beasts

Written by: Erik Larson
Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
Free with 30-day trial

₹199 per month after 30-day trial. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for ₹820.00

Buy Now for ₹820.00

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice.

Publisher's Summary

Berlin, 1933. William E. Dodd, a mild-mannered academic from Chicago, has, to his own and everyone else's surprise, become America's first ambassador to Hitler's Germany in a year that proves to be a turning point in history. Dodd and his family, most notably his vivacious daughter, Martha, observe at first-hand the many changes - some subtle, some disturbing, and some horrifically violent - that signal Hitler's consolidation of power.

Dodd has little choice but to associate with key figures in the Nazi party, and his increasingly concerned cables make little impact on an indifferent U.S. State Department. Meanwhile, Martha is drawn to the Nazis and their vision of a "New Germany". She has a succession of affairs with senior party players, including first chief of the Gestapo, Rudolf Diels. But as the year darkens, Dodd and his daughter find their lives transformed, and any last illusions they might have about Hitler are shattered in the summer of 1934 by the violence of the "Night of the Long Knives" that established him as supreme dictator.

Suffused with the tense atmosphere of the times, and with brilliant portraits of Hitler, Goebbels, Goering, and Himmler, amongst others, Erik Larson's new book sheds unique light on events as they unfold. The result is an unforgettable, addictively readable work of narrative history.

©2012 Erik Larson (P)2012 Random House Audiobooks

What listeners say about In the Garden of Beasts

Average Customer Ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    2
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

No Reviews are Available
Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
Profile image for Anna Dundas
  • Anna Dundas
  • 09-12-20

Enthralling

As a general third Reich student, I expected a normal history. How wrong I was. This read to me like a novel and I kept checking historical sources. Mr. Larson has achieved a unique blend, to me, of history in a novel style - the pun is apt. I listened to it over a couple of days and was enchanted by his achievement. The narrator is ok - he has a few lapses of pronunciation.
Listen to the book, it is different, and I hope you enjoy it. Ambassador Dodds was a breath of fresh air and well before his time. His Jewish views are misguided, reflecting an attitude prevalent in Europe and the USA, which I deplore.
[I have been an audible member for many, many years: this is my first review. I am 70 (in 6 days!’]

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars
Profile image for Amazon Customer
  • Amazon Customer
  • 14-10-18

You can always tell when a man has written a woman

This book felt really old fashioned including the narration. The descriptions and comments about the women made me cringe, it felt really dated. All the women were described in terms of looks and I felt there was an undertone of judgement about how Martha behaves. It gave a few interesting insights into Nazi Germany but not as many as I had hoped.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars
Profile image for Ash
  • Ash
  • 05-01-17

Fascinating, insightful and deeply sad in places.

I loved this book, it's a quiet one for sure but I loved it. The subjects are fairly ordinary people in an extraordinary time, Dodd is an understated, unassuming and in many ways unremarkable character thrust into a terrible time in history struggling to make an impact on what seems even at the time to be inevitable.

Before reading this book is never really had an appreciation of the complexities and absolute fear faced by members of Hitler's government such as Papen, Diels and Hanfstaengel. Larson does a good job of portraying the quiet horror that sits across the entire government and the seemingly bizarre lack of recognition of what's happening from those outside of Germany.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars
Profile image for Ovekat
  • Ovekat
  • 05-12-15

Superb story by a great Author

Any additional comments?

Superb story of the dangerous world of love and terror in pre-war Nazi Berlin written by Erik Larsson the best creative non-fiction writer around!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
Profile image for Amazon Customer
  • Amazon Customer
  • 09-12-16

A beautifully written, and powerful story.

Stephen Hoye has delivered a most authentic narration of what will become one of the finest books about the rise of a tyrant. It is up there with William Shire' s book about the rise of Hitler

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!