Author: Philip K.Dick
Original title: The Man in the High Castle
Genres: Novel, Alternative History
Country: United States
Languaje: English
Publisher: Putnam
Publication date: 1962
Pages: 240
ISBN: 0-679-74067-8
Plot:
Set fifteen years after an alternate ending to World War II in which the war lasted until 1947, the novel examines the differences that might exist in the daily life of a post-war America if the Axis Powers of Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany had defeated the Allies. In this timeline, the two victorious nations share totalitarian rule over the former United States, and the tensions between the two victors are at the forefront of the plot. Simultaneously, there´s a banned fictional book that discribes what would have happened if the allies had won the war, The Grasshopper Lies Heavy. Throughout the book, many of these characters frequently make important decisions using prophetic messages they interpret from the I Ching, an ancient Chinese divination text and the oldest of the Chinese classics.
Characters:
- Robert Childan: Owner of American Artistic Handicrafts, a shop that specializes in offering antiques to Japanese buyers. Childan switches between ingratiating worship of the Japanese occupiers and racist hatred of them. He eventually learns to value his culture and heritage even when it brings him into conflict with his Japanese customers.
- Frank Frink: A skilled maker of knock-off historical items, living in the Pacific States of America. He is fired from his factory job following an argument with his boss, and goes into business making his own items. He is secretly Jewish, and harbors a fierce dislike of the Nazis as well as admiration of the Japanese. He often consults the I Ching before making major decisions. He was formerly married to Juliana Frink.
- Nobusuke Tagomi: Head of the Japanese Trade Commission in the Pacific States of America. During a meeting, he has the sudden realization that the Nazis are evil. He plans meetings with Baynes, though he is certain that the man is a spy, and courageously defends him at a critical moment.
- Juliana Frink: A judo teacher living in the Rocky Mountain States. She is extremely beautiful. She is Frank Frink's former wife. She starts a romantic relationship with the truck driver, Joe Cinnadella (who is not what he seems) and warns Hawthorne Abendsen of the threat on his life.
- Hawthorne Abendsen: The author of The Grasshopper Lies Heavy. He lived in a heavily guarded bunker due to the threats he received after writing the book, but later he gave up this difficult existence for a more ordinary home life. Hawthorne reveals that he wrote The Grasshopper Lies Heavy by consulting the I Ching. He is The Man in the High Castle.