A true story of love, murder, and the end of the world’s “great hush.”

In Thunderstruck, Erik Larson tells the interwoven stories of two men—Hawley Crippen, a very unlikely murderer, and Guglielmo Marconi, the obsessive creator of a seemingly supernatural means of communication—whose lives intersect during one of the greatest criminal chases of all time.

Set in Edwardian London and on the stormy coasts of Cornwall, Cape Cod, and Nova Scotia, Thunderstruck evokes the dynamism of those years when great shipping companies competed to build the biggest, fastest ocean liners; scientific advances dazzled the public with visions of a world transformed; and the rich outdid one another with ostentatious displays of wealth. Against this background, Marconi races against incredible odds and relentless skepticism to perfect his invention: the wireless, a prime catalyst for the emergence of the world we know today. Meanwhile, Crippen, “the kindest of men,” nearly commits the perfect murder.

With his unparalleled narrative skills, Erik Larson guides us through a relentlessly suspenseful chase over the waters of the North Atlantic. Along the way, he tells of a sad and tragic love affair that was described on the front pages of newspapers around the world, a chief inspector who found himself strangely sympathetic to the killer and his lover, and a driven and compelling inventor who transformed the way we communicate.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The true tale of the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago and the cunning serial killer who used the magic and majesty of the fair to lure his victims to their death.

“Relentlessly fuses history and entertainment to give this nonfiction book the dramatic effect of a novel .... It doesn’t hurt that this truth is stranger than fiction.” —The New York Times

Combining meticulous research with nail-biting storytelling, Erik Larson has crafted a narrative with all the wonder of newly discovered history and the thrills of the best fiction.

Two men, each handsome and unusually adept at his chosen work, embodied an element of the great dynamic that characterized America’s rush toward the twentieth century. The architect was Daniel Hudson Burnham, the fair’s brilliant director of works and the builder of many of the country’s most important structures, including the Flatiron Building in New York and Union Station in Washington, D.C. The murderer was Henry H. Holmes, a young doctor who, in a malign parody of the White City, built his “World’s Fair Hotel” just west of the fairgrounds—a torture palace complete with dissection table, gas chamber, and 3,000-degree crematorium. 

Burnham overcame tremendous obstacles and tragedies as he organized the talents of Frederick Law Olmsted, Charles McKim, Louis Sullivan, and others to transform swampy Jackson Park into the White City, while Holmes used the attraction of the great fair and his own satanic charms to lure scores of young women to their deaths. What makes the story all the more chilling is that Holmes really lived, walking the grounds of that dream city by the lake.

The Devil in the White City draws the reader into the enchantment of the Guilded Age, made all the more appealing by a supporting cast of real-life characters, including Buffalo Bill, Theodore Dreiser, Susan B. Anthony, Thomas Edison, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, and others. Erik Larson’s gifts as a storyteller are magnificently displayed in this rich narrative of the master builder, the killer, and the great fair that obsessed them both.

Erik Larson, New York Times bestselling author of Devil in the White City, delivers a remarkable story set during Hitler’s rise to power.

The time is 1933, the place, Berlin, when William E. Dodd becomes America’s first ambassador to Hitler’s Nazi Germany in a year that proved to be a turning point in history.
    A mild-mannered professor from Chicago, Dodd brings along his wife, son, and flamboyant daughter, Martha. At first Martha is entranced by the parties and pomp, and the handsome young men of the Third Reich with their infectious enthusiasm for restoring Germany to a position of world prominence. Enamored of the “New Germany,” she has one affair after another, including with the suprisingly honorable first chief of the Gestapo, Rudolf Diels. But as evidence of Jewish persecution mounts, confirmed by chilling first-person testimony, her father telegraphs his concerns to a largely indifferent State Department back home. Dodd watches with alarm as Jews are attacked, the press is censored, and drafts of frightening new laws begin to circulate. As that first year unfolds and the shadows deepen, the Dodds experience days full of excitement, intrigue, romance—and ultimately, horror, when a climactic spasm of violence and murder reveals Hitler’s true character and ruthless ambition.
    Suffused with the tense atmosphere of the period, and with unforgettable portraits of the bizarre Göring and the expectedly charming--yet wholly sinister--Goebbels, In the Garden of Beasts lends a stunning, eyewitness perspective on events as they unfold in real time, revealing an era of surprising nuance and complexity. The result is a dazzling, addictively readable work that speaks volumes about why the world did not recognize the grave threat posed by Hitler until Berlin, and Europe, were awash in blood and terror.

De forma inesperada, o professor William E. Dodd, da Universidade de Chicago, é convidado para assumir a embaixada dos Estados Unidos na Alemanha em 1933. Junto com a esposa e os dois filhos adultos, ele parte para Berlim, decidido a manter-se neutro em relação ao governo de Adolph Hitler. A animada vida social e o charme dos homens do Terceiro Reich a princípio encantam sua jovem filha Martha. Mas o deslumbramento não dura.

Com o tempo, a família Dodd testemunha a crescente perseguição aos judeus, a censura à imprensa e a implantação de assustadoras leis. Em No jardim das feras, o escritor Erik Larson reconstitui o ambiente cada vez mais opressivo de Berlim pela perspectiva dos Dodd – registrada em cartas, diários e documentos – e revela uma era de surpreendentes nuances e complexidades.

Vous avez aiméThe Crown? Vous allez adorerLa Splendeur et l'Infamie.

10 mai 1940. Le jour où Churchill est nommé Premier ministre, Adolf Hitler envahit les Pays-Bas et la Belgique. Au cours de l'année qui suit, l'Allemagne nazie mène contre l'Angleterre une campagne de bombardement d'une intensité inédite. Acculé, le " Vieux Lion " doit préserver à tout prix le moral de son peuple... et convaincre le président Roosevelt d'entraîner les États-Unis dans la guerre.
Si durant cette période la vie publique de Churchill est chaotique, sa vie privée ne l'est pas moins. Son épouse et lui doivent gérer leur fille qui se rebelle contre leur autorité, et leur fils, confronté à l'adultère de sa femme.


À partir de nombreux documents inédits (depuis les journaux intimes des principaux protagonistes jusqu'aux documents confidentiels récemment déclassifiés), Erik Larson redonne ses lettres de noblesse à la politique en nous faisant vivre une année exceptionnelle aux côtés de Churchill. Que ce soit au 10 Downing Street ou à son domicile privé, cet homme aux ressources inépuisables, toujours surprenant, fera preuve d'un leadership hors du commun qui permettra à tout un pays – et à une famille – de rester unis.


Aussi palpitant et addictif qu'une série,La Splendeur et l'Infamies'est classé numéro un des ventes dès sa sortie en Angleterre et aux États-Unis. Il a été élu meilleur livre de l'année par le Washington Post et Barack Obama l'a désigné parmi ses livres préférés de l'année.



" Le genre depage-turnerque l'on voudrait trouver plus souvent parmi les livres d'Histoire. Larson réussit véritablement à donner au lecteur l'impression "d'y êtreˮ, de vivre aux côtés de Churchill. " Bill Gates.


À propos d'Erik Larson : " Larson raconte comme on filme : au plus près des événements, des acteurs et des témoins. Hautement recommandable. " Jean-Christophe Buisson,Le Figaro




Pour consulter les sources de l'auteur, rendez-vousici, et pour sa bibliographie, c'estici.



Rentrée littéraire 2021