Look Who's Back

Look Who's Back

<div><div>"What would happen if Adolf Hitler woke up in modern-day Berlin? In a bestselling satirical novel, he'd end up a TV comedy star . . . [<i>Look Who's Back</i>] has unsurprisingly sparked debate in a country that has grappled for decades with Hitler's unconscionable legacy."</div><div>-<i>Time</i></div><div><br /></div><div>Timur Vermes' record-breaking bestseller, <i>Look Who's Back</i>, is a satirical novel that imagines what would happen if Hilter reawakened in present-day Germany. The book was a massive success in Germany, selling more than 1.5 million copies. Janet Maslin of <i>The New York Times</i> called <i>Look Who's Back</i>"desperately funny . . . an ingenious comedy of errors."</div><div><br /></div><div>In the novel, Adolf Hitler wakes up in 2011 from a 66-year sleep in his subterranean Berlin bunker to find the Germany he knew entirely changed: Internet-driven media spreads ideas in minutes and fumes celebrity obsession; immigration has produced multicultural neighborhoods bringing together people of varying race, ethnicity, and religion; and the most powerful person in government is a woman. Hitler is immediately recognized . . . as an impersonator of uncommon skill. The public assumes the fulminating leader of the Nazi party is a performer who is always in character, and soon his inevitable viral appeal begets YouTube stardom, begets television celebrity on a Turkish-born comedian's show. His bigoted rants are mistaken for a theatrical satire-exposing prejudice and misrepresentation-and his media success emboldens Hitler to start his own political party, and set the country he finds a shambles back to rights. </div><div><br /></div><div>With daring and dark humor, <i>Look Who's Back</i> skewers the absurdity and depravity of the cult of personality in modern media culture.</div></div><div><br /></div>