A Man Lies Dreaming

By: Lavie Tidhar

Narrated by: Andrew Wincott

Since its original 2014 publication, A Man Lies Dreaming has been translated into multiple languages and gained a cult following for its dark humor, prescient politics, and powerful exploration of the impossibility of fantasy.

1939: Adolf Hitler, fallen from power, seeks refuge in a London engulfed in the throes of a very British Fascism. Now eking a miserable living as a down-at-heels private eye and calling himself Wolf, he has no choice but to take on the case of a glamorous Jewish heiress whose sister went missing.

It's a decision Wolf will very shortly regret.

For in another time and place a man lies dreaming: Shomer, once a Yiddish pulp writer, who dreams lurid tales of revenge in the hell that is Auschwitz.

Prescient, darkly funny, and wholly original, the award-winning A Man Lies Dreaming is a modern fable for our time that comes "crashing through the door of literature like Sam Spade with a .38 in his hand" (Guardian).

©2014, 2020 Lavie Tidhar (P)2021 Tantor

Great story

Alternative Hitleria is a passion of mine (Hitler and fascism are not), and this book, along with The Iron Dream and Swastika Night, is now going on my list of books that imagine Hitler doing other things than Hitler ended up doing. Perfectly haunting from beginning to end.

absolutely stellar narration perfectly matched to the material (which is also shockingly good)

somebody is not doing their job well, for a book this good, this interesting and unexpected, this original--all amplified by a narrator performance that is not only ideally matched, but is a sustained masterclass in character acting--to not come up more readily in more searches than it does. i found this through the jaberwocky site and had i not been there looking for something else, i wonder if i ever wouldve found it at all. i do prob 50-60 a year, and id def put this in my top 10 for the year. its a dark alternative history wrapped in a hard-boiled, very noir-style mystery delivering lots of action, some mayhem and a very satisfying literate style that is more than interesting, its moving. get this one if you like alt history, crime, politics (esp pre ww2 european politics). i bet you'll love it as much as i did. sleeper audiobook of the year? id say yes but read it and tell me what you think.

Alternate history for mid 20th century

Lavie Tidhar’s A Man Lies Dreaming is an alternate history tale as dreamed by a holocaust victim. In this world, Germany was taken over by communists and Hitler escapes to England as a refugee under the identity of ‘Wolf’ and works as a private detective. He is hired to find a missing Jewish woman.

Tidhar envisions an alternate life story for one of history’s most hated figures. Wolf eeks out a misera-ble life, barely getting by with whatever work he manages to find and is forced to deal with societal elements that he hates.

The narration is good, but with heavy accents, while character distinction is reasonable. Pacing is a ta slow.