The Fox

An amazing short story about a man who helped create the Nazi terror, then woke up to what he created. This story is fantastic, but too short! It needed to be a lot longer with the parts between 1933 and 1945 in it. And I thought the ending, while admittedly realistic was sad. I have to admit, I like happy endings.

This little novella packs a punch -- its a vignette into the life of one man in Germany, both in 1933 and 1945. I liked how it wasn't overcomplicated in terms of characters or plot, but showed what real events could have been like for this type of person. Even though it is short, you get invested in Friedrich and his moral struggle as the Third Reich is on the rise, and even in the end of the war. Highly recommend for anyone interested in WWII literature!

The Fox by Adam S. Toporek is about Friedrich Foxx who as a Nazi party member helped them come to power in 1933 but slowly wakes up to the realisation of just what he has done and the monster he has helped to unleash on the world. This was a short read but I enjoyed it immensely.

Thank you NetGalley for giving me the chance to read this book ahead of time in exchange for a review. It didn't disappoint! Must read!!

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are my own.

The Fox had me captivated from beginning to end. Also, no one in this story was likable. Their personality changes throughout the war were realistically haunting. Johann and his brother will haunt my dreams tonight . Very, very well written and haunting.

The hero of this cautionary tale, Friedrich Foxx, is a journalist whose story we begin to follow in the 1930's.
A suave character, he loves Hitler, but does not as yet take seriously how deep his - and others' - anti-semitism really is. Then his secretary starts to refer to one of his friends as a hook-nose.

He begins to see the light a little more when his good friend Goebbels sends him an obnoxious bureaucrat who asks him to toe the line a little more with this anti-semitism. But surely his good buddy will recognise that a gentleman journalist needs full autonomy to express himself as he pleases?

Won't he?.........

Fast forward a few years. Foxx is now an old, broken man, having not just lost his illustrious job, but incarcerated too. He is poor, disenfranchised, trying to survive in a destroyed Berlin. But the Nazis left behind still want to wreak maximum destruction.

Foxx meets two boys, and seeks redemption in trying to protect and shelter them. However, this is not a story that believes in happy endings.

Possibly the sad ending is meant to drive home the cautionary message, though to me it brought an element of distaste. The degradation of humanity, the capacity for committing atrocities and breaking the human spirit - yes, there are surely real-life tales from WW2 that are surely far more heinous than this. We get the point.

It's a short story, barely a novella. And its message is no less true. Complacency and not recognising evil in time allow these things to happen so no, don't be like Foxx.

It is August 1933 and it has been seven months since Hitler was appointed as the Chancellor of Germany, and the country is almost completely Nazified. The most famous radio personality Friedrich Foxx is part of Germany's transformation as the voice of its rebrth, and soon he must choose whether he is going to support the madness that is Naziism and it;s facist dictatorship or whether he is going to fight against it.