The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick

Just finished this book last night. The novel explores the idea of how the world might be had the Nazis and the other Axis forces won the Second World War (a scary scenario if ever there was one). The story follows several characters as they try to make sense of the world around them. In the novel the Nazis control New York, the Japanese California and in the middle is a neutral buffer zone known as the Pacific States of America. It is in this buffer zone that the story takes place. The characters come from all sides of the new world order America finds itself in, from Nobusuke Tagomi the Japanese Trade missioner and Rudolf Wegener a Third Reich Officer to everyday citizens such as Frank Frink and his estranged wife Juliana. There are many aspects to the story but the main plot line centres around a novel published in the Pacific States of America called "the Grasshopper Lies Heavy". In this novel the author describes a world in which the Axis won the war and this very idea plays heavy on the minds of the characters many of whom feel that the reality they inhabit is somehow false. I really enjoyed the novel and as a student of History I found it fascinating, albeit horrifying, to contemplate the alternative world the book describes. Highly recommended.