Author: Jean-Noël Orengo.
The writer Jean-Noël Orengo presents this afternoon at 7 pm in the Mediatheque of the Instituto Francés his book The wretched love of the Führer. Admission is free with prior reservation at this link.
Halfway between essay, historical novel and political analysis, this work disturbs by its topicality and offers an unprecedented look at Albert Speer, architect and later minister of armaments of the Third Reich, whose figure continues to fascinate historians all over the world.
Year 1969, Albert Speer, Hitler’s favorite architect and weapons minister, publishes his Memoirs. By reviewing his past, from his sets for the Nazi congresses to the fall of the Reich, he is putting an end to his definitive metamorphosis, the same one that allowed him to save his head in the Nuremberg trials and which will now make him the star of German guilt. After stating that he had never heard of the Final Solution, he pleads “responsible but not guilty”. Even if historians succeed in proving that he has lied, it is his version of himself that will prevail from now on.
In times of fake news and the war of stories, Orengo offers a novel about one of the greatest lies in history. Tracing the scenes of Speer’s life, questioning its plausibility, illuminating certain dark aspects, going beyond where he stops and summoning some key characters from the post-war period-in particular, the historian Gitta Sereny, the author offers a dizzying image of the man whom one of his collaborators came to define as follows: “Do you know what you are? You are the wretched love of the Führer”.
Jean-Noël Orengo, pictured, (born 1978 in Paris) is a writer and film critic. Known for interweaving historical fiction and philosophical reflection, his first novel, La Fleur du Capital (2015), was a finalist for the prestigious Goncourt Prize and received the Sade Prize. The wretched love of the Führer (2023) was also a finalist for the Goncourt Prize. His work combines intellectual rigor with immersive literary narrative, consolidating it as one of the most innovative voices of contemporary literature in France.
Pages: 344
Publisher: Adn Editorial Grupo Anaya
Binding: Soft cover
ISBN: 9791387596170
RPP: 19,90 euros
