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The Kaiser’s Last Kiss
Unavailable
The Kaiser’s Last Kiss
Unavailable
The Kaiser’s Last Kiss
Audiobook5 hours

The Kaiser’s Last Kiss

Written by Alan Judd

Narrated by Gibson Frazier

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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About this audiobook

A fictionalised account of the Kaiser Wilhelm’s last years in Nazi-occupied Holland.

It is 1940 and the exiled Kaiser is living in Holland, at his palace Huis Doorn.The old German king spends his days chopping logs and musing on what might have been.

When the Nazis invade Holland, the Kaiser’s Dutch staff are replaced by SS guards, led by young, eager Untersturmfuhrer Krebbs, and an unlikely relationship develops between the king and his keeper. While they agree on the rightfulness of German expansion and on holding the country’s Jewish population accountable for all ills, they disagree on the solutions. Krebbs’s growing attraction and love affair with Akki, a Jewish maid in the house, further undermines his belief in Nazism. But as the tides of war roll around them, all three find themselves increasingly compromised and gravely at risk.

This subtle, tender novel borrows heavily from real history and events, but remains a work of superlative, literary fiction.Through Judd’s depiction of the Lear-like Kaiser and the softening of brutal Krebbs, the novel draws unique parallels between Germany at the turn of the 20th century and Hitler’s Germany.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateNov 16, 2017
ISBN9780008263256
Unavailable
The Kaiser’s Last Kiss
Author

Alan Judd

Alan Judd’s ‘Ford Madox Ford’ won the Royal Society of Literature and Heinemann Awards; his novella, ‘The Devil’s Own Work’, won the Guardian fiction prize. His celebrated novel ‘A Breed of Heroes’ was recently screened on BBC1. He is the author of three other novels, and has recently retired from the Foreign Office.

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Reviews for The Kaiser’s Last Kiss

Rating: 3.4857142142857143 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

35 ratings3 reviews

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Short book filled with a lot of hmmmmm, and could it have been so? Kaiser Wilhelm has left Germany , lost his position as ruler, and now lives in Holland in his chateau in his 'pretend' world. Or is it....IS he more aware than it seems? Allowed to live, but guarded permanently by the SS, he acts as tho the possibility of returning to rule exists. Enter the characters around whom the story revolves - Krebs the lead Nazi officer, and Akki the Jewish maid. Nothing is totally written in stone is it, not totally black and white .... there is always a gray zone of thinking and change.Book could have been even better if lengthened and characters fleshed out...
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Blah, blah! Not entertaining enough to pick it up once you put it down. Good writing but just not compelling.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I'm afraid this one was just a tad too in depth for my liking. The plot was very slow and it was painfully detailed. While I'm sure many will appreciate the rich history, I just couldn't fully commit. I made it about halfway before I stopped due to boredom. I wanted to push on, but I found that I just didn't care enough to continue...

    I appreciate the ARC that was provided and I'm sure history buffs will devour this one, but for me... I needed a faster pace and more action.