The Kaiser’s Last Kiss
Alan Judd
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.
COPYRIGHT (#ulink_581c5351-6a21-58db-9a2b-b8ae568a5fbc)
Harper Perennial
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
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London SE1 9GF
www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)
This edition published by Harper Perennial 2004
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers in 2003
Copyright © Alan Judd 2003
PS Section © Josh Lacey 2004
Alan Judd asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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Source ISBN: 9780007124473
Ebook Edition © MAY 2016 ISBN: 9780008193195
Version: 2016-04-28
PRAISE (#ulink_a2a23647-9b08-5c6d-98bd-6efab7ac7d74)
From the reviews of The Kaiser’s Last Kiss:
‘Fascinating … if one of the hallmarks of a good novel is that the characters do not remain static but are subtly transformed by events, then this is a very good novel indeed.’
Sunday Telegraph
‘A haunting tribute to a near-forgotten figure – the German Kaiser who spent his last years in Dutch exile. Judd has complete command of the subtleties of character, ambition and emotional ambiguity in extreme circumstances – an unusual and intelligent treatment of the Third Reich.’
ANNE MCELVOY
‘Alan Judd’s new novel is extremely appetising. It’s like seeing a waiter bringing a beautifully arranged dish towards you. Judd has written scenes that perfectly combine fear and embarrassment … this is a story that shows us how the nastiest of regimes are composed of real people. Brilliant.’
Daily Telegraph
‘A fascinating and imaginative exploration of a seminal episode of 20th-century history.’
Irish Examiner
DEDICATION (#ulink_8cf4f23a-e373-56a3-b9c2-87de6bba00b8)
To Katie
CONTENTS
Cover (#uf4067d3f-545f-5e29-b4c4-0b1613f2fcac)
Title Page (#uef03c5c1-984c-55ab-abc6-4385da95848b)
Copyright (#ulink_0dba0aae-64f0-5485-a1b2-9a86bddbc7f6)
Praise (#ulink_047a5737-8330-57b4-80d7-bdd057cffb6b)
Dedication (#ulink_4961ede0-18ab-5dc8-878d-cc61a7e606b8)
One (#ulink_1029b4d1-97c7-55c2-b9d4-4a2a47df9423)
Two (#ulink_760df834-e38f-5eb7-97a2-a0cb921e40e0)
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Postscript
P.S. Ideas, Interviews & Features …
About the Author
About the Book
Read on
