HMH Literature in Translation

The full 2017 shortlist is as follows:

Author (nationality), Translator, Title (imprint)​

Mathias Enard (France), Charlotte Mandell (US), Compass (Fitzcarraldo Editions)

David Grossman (Israel), Jessica Cohen (US), A Horse Walks Into a Bar (Jonathan Cape)

Roy Jacobsen (Norway), Don Bartlett (UK), Don Shaw (UK), The Unseen (Maclehose)

Dorthe Nors (Denmark), Misha Hoekstra (US), Mirror, Shoulder, Signal (Pushkin Press)

Amos Oz (Israel), Nicholas de Lange (UK), Judas (Chatto & Windus/HMH)

Samanta Schweblin (Argentina), Megan McDowell (US), Fever Dream (Oneworld)

Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich is available now! Watch the trailer, get the book. 

“Transforming meticulous research into compelling prose, Ohler delves into the little-known history of drug use in Nazi Germany.”—ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

“[A] fascinating, engrossing, often dark history of drug use in the Third Reich.” —THE WASHINGTON POST

A fast-paced, highly original history that uncovers the full extent of drug use in Nazi Germany—from Hitler’s all-consuming reliance on a slew of substances, to the drugs that permeated the regime and played an integral role in Germany’s military performance and ultimate downfall in World War II.

Order it now:

Amazon Barnes & Noble Books-a-Million Hudson iBooks IndieBound

"Ohler's astonishing account of methamphetamine addiction in the Third Reich changes what we know about the Second World War . . . Blitzed looks set to reframe the way certain aspects of the Third Reich will be viewed in the future." — Guardian

"Blitzed tells the remarkable story of how Nazi Germany slid towards junkie-state status. It is an energetic ... account of an accelerating, modernizing society, an ambitious pharmaceuticals industry, a military machine that was looking for ways to create an unbeatable soldier, and a dictator who couldn't function without fixes from his quack ... It has an uncanny ability to disturb." — Times (UK)

"A huge contribution ... Remarkable." —Antony Beevor, BBC 4 Today

"The picture [Ohler] paints is both a powerful and an extreme one ... Gripping reading." — Times Literary Supplement

"A fascinating, most extraordinary revelation." — BBC World News

“Blitzed tells a deliriously druggy tale of the Third Reich.” — Paris Review

"Absorbing ... Makes the convincing argument that the Nazis' use of chemical stimulants ... played a crucial role in the successes, and failures, of the Third Reich." —Esquire

"Bursting with interesting facts." — Vice

Norman Ohler is an award-winning German novelist, screenwriter, and journalist. He spent five years researching Blitzed in numerous archives in Germany and the United States, and spoke to eye-witnesses, military historians, and doctors. He is also the author of the novels Die Quotenmaschine (the world's first hypertext novel), Mitte and Stadt des Goldes (translated into English as Ponte City). He was co-writer of the script for Wim Wenders' film Palermo Shooting.