First published 1997
William Kohler sits in his basement study, surrounded by the research for his book on Nazi Germany. A middle-aged history professor in a small Midwestern college town, Kohler finds himself writing not just about fascism but about the darkness he recognizes within himself. As he works on his academic manuscript, his thoughts spiral between his scholarly observations about human evil and his own bitter reflections on his marriage, his colleagues, and his growing misanthropy. The deeper Kohler digs into his historical research, the more he confronts uncomfortable truths about his own prejudices and capacity for hatred. His basement becomes both sanctuary and prison as he wrestles with questions that have no clean answers. This is a story about a man discovering that the line between studying evil and embodying it may be thinner than he ever imagined.
Genres: literary-fiction, american-fiction, historical-fiction, academic
Vibes: dark, emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
Setting: Germany, Midwest
Period: 20th-century
Hardcover · Random House Value Publishing
Content warnings: mental-illness