The Man in the High Castle: An Mariner Classic Dystopian Novel of an Alternative America Following World War 2, Divided By War and Ruled by Germany and Japan

In this Hugo Award–winning alternative history classic—the basis for the Amazon Original series—the United States lost World War II and was subsequently divided between the Germans in the East and the Japanese in the West.

It’s America in 1962. Slavery is legal once again. The few Jews who still survive hide under assumed names. In this dystopian world, we meet characters like Frank Frink, a dealer of counterfeit Americana who is himself hiding his Jewish ancestry; Nobusuke Tagomi, the Japanese trade minister in San Francisco, unsure of his standing within the bureaucracy and Japan’s with Germany; and Juliana Frink, Frank’s ex-wife, who may be more important than she realizes.

These seemingly disparate characters gradually realize their connections to each other just as they start questioning the very nature of their reality. And it seems as though the answers might lie with Hawthorne Abendsen, a mysterious and reclusive author, whose best-selling novel describes a world in which the US won the War… The Man in the High Castle is Dick at his best, a masterpiece of philosophical science fiction giving readers a harrowing vision of the world that almost was.

“The single most resonant and carefully imagined book of Dick’s career.”—New York Times

BUY THE BOOK

Published Jan 24, 2012

288 pages

Average rating: 6.13

89 RATINGS

|

These clubs recently read this book...

QSF&F

QSF&F is a Bay Area book club for LGBTQIA and LGBTQIA-friendly people who love reading all kinds of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and anything that could loosely fall into any of these categories...but mostly science fiction.

Read the Classics

A book club for the moment, and also for the ages. 📚 If you're an avid reader of classic literature and looking for fellow bookworms to discuss it with then you came to the right place!

LA Westside Women’s Book Club

A group of women who meet once a month in Culver City to talk about books

Community Reviews

Flo Lau
Mar 23, 2024
6/10 stars
I liked the premise, but I wasn't a huge fan of the execution. The story jumped from character to character and there was no development, so I really didn't find that I cared for any of them or what happened to them. No one's stories felt particularly resolved either, which was frustrating (though it would have been more frustrating if I'd been actually invested in them). It was just like random stuff was happening.

There were hints of conspiracies going around like Germany planning to bomb Japan and all, but none of it ever felt developed or expanded on, so it disappointed me that nothing came of it. I liked some of the reflections about the evil in society and how it can't be escaped, but often I felt like the book went on philosophical tangents that I wasn't into.

I saw that he had been planning to write a sequel to this book, and maybe that would have helped with things, but overall, I found this book unsatisfactory.
mjex19
Jul 18, 2023
8/10 stars
Man, I hate nazis

See why thousands of readers are using Bookclubs to stay connected.