Copies of "In the Garden of Beasts" are available at Decorah Library

The Decorah Public Library history book group will discuss Erik Larson's" In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin" at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, June 19th, on the second floor of the library. Books are currently available for checkout at the front desk.

In 1933 William E. Dodd became America's first ambassador to Hitler's Germany in a year that proved to be a turning point in history.  Dodd brings along his wife, son, and flamboyant daughter, Martha. At first, Martha is entranced by the parties and pomp, and the handsome young men of the Third Reich.  But as evidence of Jewish persecution mounts, confirmed by chilling first-person testimony, her father telegraphs his concerns to a largely indifferent State Department back home.  By the end of the book, a climactic spasm of violence and murder has unmasked Hitler's true character and ruthless ambition.