Norte (Trilogía del Norte, 2)

Germany is ablaze. The collapse of the Reich is only months away, but in the meantime, Céline—actor and reciter—has chosen to go into exile from Paris to escape certain death. In Baden-Baden—at a strange castle where delicacies like caviar and champagne matter more than the bombing raids—the astonishment of Baroness Von Seckt is palpable; a survivor from another world, she passes judgment on Hitler: "The Devil’s triumph is due primarily to the fact that the people who knew him well are no longer around..." From there, the journey leads to Berlin, and then to Rostock... Everywhere, there is nothing but ruins. Céline and his fellow sufferers—his wife Lili, the actor Le Vigan, and the cat Bébert—are sent to Zornhof, a vast estate ruled by a madman, situated where the plain stretches out to infinity.