(Liefde in het Derde Rijk)
From the best prose artist and storyteller writing in Dutch today.
Meet Georg, Klara and Lore. Their lives are very different: George is an ordinary, reluctant, soldier, Klara ends up working for the Lebensborn organisation and Lore becomes her chauffeur. Their three stories meander like snakes through the twentieth century, each with its own timeline, sometimes intertwined, sometimes separate. All three experience the Third Reich, with different degrees of engagement, passion and understanding. All three are moved by the Fates. With and through them we experience the passion of first love, and the misguided idealism of a youth growing up in a totalitarian regime. Tossed back and forth between innocence and the will to survive, betrayal and loyalty, they survive the horrors of the Second World War. Driessen knows how to write a completely original story, told from the inside, capturing the feelings, situations, decisions, dramas of these lives vividly and authentically – this novel will fascinate, discomfort and entertain in equal measure.
‘Love in the Third Reich is as fascinating as it is unsettling. Driessen is a master storyteller, who portrays his characters convincingly… Do they live as independent people with their own responsibility? Or do they let themselves be guided by the systems and powers of their time? That is what is at stake in this compelling novel. The question is more topical than it has been for a long time.’ Nederlands Dagblad
‘In the timeless prose we have come to expect from him, Driessen follows the thoughts and actions of his main characters, even if those thoughts sometimes pushes the reader to less comfortable places. Has Driessen delivered another flawless composition? Definitely!’ Tzum
‘Stylistically this novel is recognisable as a true Driessen; a style often described as artistic, earthy, andante, sentences that force you to slow down your reading pace a little. You feel you are in the hands of a masterful narrator. Driessen often confronts his characters with situations bigger than themselves, as in a Greek tragedy: the war or natural disasters, but also with an inner inescapability – a certain character trait that makes the character really only have one way to go.’ De Volkskrant
‘What a fantastic book! Gripping, melancholic and descriptive with convincing main characters. Driessen at his best.’ Erik Hoestra, bookseller
‘Driessen writes well—in a classically atmospheric style that showcases his elegant sense of irony and tragedy.’ NRC
‘What I find clever is that Driessen is not a Dutch writer telling a German story here. No, this story has an authentic German feel and is told with enormous imagination. His choice of precisely these three characters and how he manages to sculpt such a fine composition out of them. In short, the author has convinced me. I have finished the book but its characters haven’t left me yet and will keep me busy for a while. A stunningly good book!’ Liberales
‘With Love in the Third Reich, Martin Michael Driessen wants to show that totalitarian regimes not only mobilise the evil in human beings, not only appeal to our bad tendencies and capitalise on our selfish side but also the contrary, they emphasise our good qualities: idealism, community spirit, loyalty, ambition and mobilise love. This is precisely what makes these regimes so dangerous. (quoted from an interview with the author in Trouw). Stylistically a masterpiece.’ Hebban.nl
Sales
- Van Oorschot NL (original publisher, June 2025)
Material: Finished copies and pdf (240pp)