Forgotten Fatherland

'Startling, dark and absorbing' Independent'Excellent travel writing: vivid, sympathetic, humorous' Guardian'Fascinating, provocative and highly eccentric' New York TimesIn 1886 Elisabeth Nietzsche, the philosopher Friedrich's bigoted, imperious sister, founded a 'racially pure' colony in Paraguay together with a band of blond-haired fellow Germans. Over a century later, Ben Macintyre sought out the survivors of Nueva Germania to discover the remains of this bizarre colony. Forgotten Fatherland vividly recounts his arduous adventure locating the survivors, while also tracing the colorful history of Elisabeth's return to Europe, where she inspired the mythical cult of her brother's philosophy and later became a mentor to Hitler. Brilliantly researched and mordantly funny, this is an illuminating portrait of a forgotten people and of a woman whose deep influence on the twentieth century can only now be fully understood.

Fascinating, provocative and highly eccentric, Witty, intelligent and told with a rollicking, trenchant style, Macintyre's journey to rediscover Nueva Germania deep in the Paraguayan forest and his descriptions of what he found, make compelling reading. But more fascinating still is the story Macintyre interleaves with his discovery, that of Elisabeth's own life and her deliberate distortions of her brother's philosophy to make it accord with her own, Remarkable and entertaining ... Macintyre weaves the many threads together with considerable literary skill, jumping backwards and forwards between Paraguayan past and present, between the Germany of Bismarck and of Hitler ... a parade of exotic figures and tall tales inhabit the story, Macintyre's powers as a writer are wonderfully responsive. This year's crop of travel books is unlikely to yield anything more bizarrely compelling

Ben Macintyre is a columnist and Associate Editor on The Times. He has worked as the newspaper's correspondent in New York, Paris and Washington. He is the author of nine books including Agent Zigzag, shortlisted for the Costa Biography Award and the Galaxy British Book Award for Biography of the Year 2008, the number 1 bestseller Operation Mincemeat and, most recently, the Richard & Judy Book Club selection, Double Cross. He lives in London with his wife and three children.