7.2 /10 1 Votes
Language English Media type Print (Hardback) Publisher Hodder & Stoughton | 3.6/5 Goodreads Publication date 16 July 2015 Originally published July 2015 ISBN 978-1-444-71068-7 Country United Kingdom | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pages 518 pp (first edition, hardback) Genres Adventure fiction, Alternate history Similar The Afrika Reich, A Kill in the Morning, The Sound of His Horn, SS‑GB, Fatherland | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Madagaskar Plan is a 2015 alternate history adventure novel by Guy Saville. In this world Britain and the Third Reich have negotiated a peace treaty allowing Nazi Germany to conquer much of Africa. There has been no Holocaust. Instead, the Nazis have implemented their Madagascar Plan, a scheme to deport the Jewish population of Europe to Madagascar. In the novel, five million Jews have been sent to the island.
Contents
Plot
Following on directly from events in The Afrika Reich, the protagonist Burton Cole returns home to Britain to find his lover, Madeleine, has vanished. Meanwhile Hochburg’s invasion of Rhodesia has turned to disaster and his forces have been driven back across the border to Kongo. Emboldened by his failure, anti-Nazi guerrillas in the north of Kongo have launched a surprise attack leaving Hochburg to fight a war on two fronts. After a conference call with Himmler, Hochburg realises that there will be no reinforcements from Europe. Visiting the Shinkolobwe mine he learns of a superweapon (presumably an atomic bomb, though it is never stated explicitly) that will help him turn the tide of the war. Because of Hitler’s policy banning the development of nuclear weapons, the only people capable of developing a bomb for Hochburg are Jewish physicists exiled to Madagascar. Hochburg travels to the island and comes into conflict with its governor, Odilo ‘Globus’ Globocnik.
Cole has discovered that Madeleine has been sent to the island as a prisoner and smuggles himself there in an effort to find her. He visits the scuppered cruise-liner the Wilhelm Gustloff, which is moored off the island and holds the records of all the Jews on Madagascar and learns of Madeleine’s address in the town of Antzu.
In a third strand, Salois, a leader of the Jewish resistance is given a mission to destroy the German naval base of Diego Suarez. Located on the northern end of Madagascar, the base allows the German navy to dominate the Indian Ocean (renamed Ostafrikanischer Ozean in the book). Unless it is taken out of action the British will never be able to defeat the Germans in Africa.
As Burton tracks down Madeleine across the island and Hochburg and Globus clash over the physicists, the strands of the novel come together at Mandritsara, location of a secret Nazi hospital. Salois is killed and Globus unleashed a flood against the Jews. Hochburg escapes the island with his nuclear secrets, leaving Burton to vow his revenge.
There is an author’s note at the end, describing the historical basis for the novel, including references and a bibliography.
Real historical figures in the book
Along with the Nazi leadership, a number of real figures appear as characters in the book:
Lord Halifax, Prime Minister of Great Britain; he signs a peace treaty with Hitler effectively ending the war
Odilo Globocnik, the Governor of Madagaskar
Admiral Dommes, commanding officer of the Diego Suarez base
Robert Taft, the recently elected President of the United States