Murray Davies

“In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.”
― Charles Darwin

Collaborator is an alternate World War II. The Nazis have won the Battle of Britain, the British Government as well as most of the Royal Family have fled to Canada leaving most of the British public under the thumb of a brutal German rule.

Nick Penny returns to his occupied village from a prisoner of war camp to work as a translator for the German commander of the area and learns that his father was killed by the Germans during the invasion. Despite working for the Germans and as such regarded by many of the local inhabitants as a collaborator Penny discovers that his two oldest and best friends are in fact working for a growing Resistance group. Penny finds himself drawn into the small scale battles against the invaders and their helpers, the Militia.

Penny has little time for the local civic leaders whom he regard as mere sycophants yet he regards his own boss, Kurt von Glass, as a reasonably decent Nazi.This is an interesting juxtaposition as we see that in order to survive under an occupation, everyone must be a collaborator to some extent, and each person must decide how much collaboration is permissible.

When Germany invades Russia the Nazis become more stretched and more brutal sending Englishman to fight on the Eastern Front or work in German industry whilst creating British concentration camps for its Jewish population mirroring what it did in reality in other captured countries.

Most of the story is told from Penny's point of view but on occasion it swings between a number of different characters' viewpoints. Whilst it is nice to have these differing viewpoints, they are often rather jerky in nature. They do however, show how relationships change as choices are made and events occur. On the whole Penny is a likeable, humane character who is loyal to his friends and you want him to succeed whilst also knowing that his is a very limited lifespan.

The action is relatively unremitting and told at a fast pace making it hard to put down at times so a relatively quick read. Now I must admit that this is the first 'alternative' history book that I've read and whilst it was interesting up to a point I'm not sure that it is a genre that I would actively seek out. That said if you want something to while away the time on a long flight,train journey or laying beside the pool and don't want anything too taxing on the old grey cells you could certainly do far worse.… (mais)