In the Garden of Beasts

[媒體報導] 

環球取得作家艾瑞克拉森於五月出版非小說類暢銷作品版權，湯姆漢克斯與Gary Goetzman透過自立的Playtone公司製作，湯姆可能會親自演出。

該書描述1933年一位溫文爾雅、有點不情願的美國駐德大使William E. Dodd與他的女兒Martha真實故事。Martha是位活潑的社會積極份子，和蓋世太保及蘇聯間諜墜入情網。剛開始Dodd與他的家人們天真地生活在納粹德國上，但是漸漸地開始體會到週遭的暴力氛圍。這樣的故事延續湯姆對二次大戰歷史主題的喜愛，他的Playtone公司已製作多部榮獲艾美獎的迷你劇集，如<諾曼地大空降><太平洋戰爭><約翰亞當斯傳>。

另外，作者艾瑞克並非第一次與好萊塢接觸，之前著名作品<白城魔鬼>已經被李奧納多狄卡皮歐取得並製作中。~~出處"電影大道部落格"

“Larson is a marvelous writer...superb at creating characters with a few short strokes.”—New York Times Book Review

Erik Larson has been widely acclaimed as a master of narrative non-fiction, and in his new book, the bestselling author of Devil in the White City turns his hand to 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 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.