Look Who's Back

By: Timur Vermes

Narrated by: Julian Rhind-Tutt

Berlin, Summer 2011. Adolf Hitler wakes up on a patch of open ground, alive and well. Things have changed – no Eva Braun, no Nazi party, no war. Hitler barely recognises his beloved Fatherland, filled with immigrants and run by a woman. People certainly recognise him, albeit as a flawless impersonator who refuses to break character. The unthinkable, the inevitable happens, and the ranting Hitler goes viral, becomes a YouTube star, gets his own T.V. show, and people begin to listen. But the Führer has another programme with even greater ambition – to set the country he finds a shambles back to rights.

Look Who’s Back stunned and then thrilled 1.5 million German readers with its fearless approach to the most taboo of subjects. Naive yet insightful, repellent yet strangely sympathetic, the revived Hitler unquestionably has a spring in his step.

©2012 Bastei Lübbe AG (P)2014 Quercus Publishing plc

Critic reviews

“Shockingly plausible” ( Die Zeit)
“Uproariously funny” ( Stern)

“Be warned. This book is funny. Very funny.” (Rebecca Morrison, Independent)
“An uproarious, disturbing book that will resonate long after you turn the final page” (Caroline Jowett, Daily Express)
“Clever, provocative and very entertaining. Hitler is a great, albeit monstrous, comic creation.” (Darragh McManus, Irish Independent)
“Julian Rhind-Tutt’s reading is beyond marvellous . . . Both funny and frightening, this is a subtle, historical study of the commanding nature of the fanatical demagogue, as well as a savage critique of contemporary western culture. It is a powerful and important book.” (Sue Gaisford, Independent)

Brilliant satire

I had my doubts when I bought it. Hitler is probably the most hated man in history and how can a English man narrate it! Well I decided to go for it and took it as it is, a satire and gave the English man a chance. I did not regret it. Julian Rhind-Tutt is simply brilliant and very funny with all his "Lol" and "Omg" or whatever. He is hilarious as furious Hitler and although speaking English he pronounces all the German names and sites in perfect German (I think). Of course you cannot read or listen to a book like that without thinking about all the history and what if it would happen again. But as Hitler says in the book...."It was not all bad" ...or was it?

Funniest book I've ever read!

I loved it. This is the ultimate form of contemporary satire. Bringing today and history together is perfect for both reflection and a jolly good laugh.

very original story

the narrators performance is amazing! , story starts really good but slowly declines afterwards. overall its a good book.

love it

extremly entertaining..i love hitler now..he shld def come back...wld have a lot of votes. Germans prob still suffer from shame they shld not have

Read the book instead...

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I would recommend the "book", but not the audiobook.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Didn't like any, due to the delivery of the narrator.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

I really, really disliked the narrator in this one. He reads it well, but he ruins the atmosphere and immersion by making the characters sound too English. I personally lost my appeal for this audiobook due to this fact. If the narrator would have read and enacted the characters with a more German accent that would have made things much better in my opinion. The narrator obviously has no idea whatsoever how certain words are pronounced in German either. For instance, I don't know how many times he pronounced the word "Volk" instead of "Folk". You might think this is nitpicking, but for someone like me who cares about accuracy it was not possible to ignore.

My advice is read the book or hope someone else narrates the book some day. The delivery of the characters are in my opinion terrible due to the lack of accuracy and since this is a character driven book, it had to be done right. Why they picked someone with no German skills is beyond me...

Do you think Look Who's Back needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

Why not, but then it should be narrated by someone else.

Any additional comments?

If a second version of the audiobook would ever be done, I would not hesitate to give it a go. I am sure that the narrator does a good job on other books, but he was not suitable for this one at all. I would have much preferred listening to a German with a heavy accent than this narrator.

Not funny

Hitler wakes up and it is 60 years later. As one of the minor characters says 'he wasn't funny then and he is exactly the same - not funny now"