38 Londres Street

Reviews / Votes

[An] intriguing, beautifully observed and thoughtful book about immunity and impunity . . . Sands makes his legal arguments come alive -- Roger Boyes * THE TIMES * Sands is a storyteller and a scholar, capable of turning scraps into an enthralling collage . . . These questions of memory and impunity are forever timely * FINANCIAL TIMES * A gripping blend of memoir, investigative journalism and courtroom drama, with a narrative spanning decades and thousands of miles -- Zuzanna Lachendro * NEW STATESMAN * Well told . . . An account of how difficult it is to bring to book those guilty of the most appalling crimes -- Philip Johnston * TELEGRAPH * Not just a gripping behind-the-scenes court drama . . . [uncovers] the chilling, macabre truth -- Grace Livingstone * TLS * Sands's achievement is to excavate a deeper intimacy between the cases of Rauff and Pinochet . . . he follows each twist in the double narrative with an impressive combination of moral clarity and judicious detachment . . . But it is Sands's expertise in international law, coupled with a natural storyteller's intuition for structure, that gives his latest book its understated power. His stories have all the more impact for their subtlety -- Rafael Behr * GUARDIAN * This remarkable, sweeping book completes Sands's trilogy about Nazi war crimes . . . Sands's exhaustive research is as impressive as his storytelling * SUNDAY INDEPENDENT * The concluding part of Philippe Sands's extraordinary trilogy - part history, part moral investigation, part memoir - that documents the legal and personal battles to bring to account Nazi war criminals and their disciples . . . One of Sands's strengths as a writer is that he resists the impulse to demonise . . . He achieves [a damning picture] with his understated doggedness -- Andrew Anthony * OBSERVER * A mixture of personal memoir and historical detective work [that] tells the story of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet . . . Fascinating * THE i PAPER, Books of the Year * An extraordinary achievement . . . I read with open mouth and thumping heart. Sands brilliantly traces the atrocious trail of blood that leads from the death camps of Nazi Germany to the torture rooms of Pinochet's Chile. 38 Londres Street takes its place as one of the most unforgettable and important records of the systematic pitiless cruelty of which tyrannies are capable -- STEPHEN FRY Sands is phenomenal. The research alone leaves one dazed with admiration -- ANTONY BEEVOR Though nearly a decade in the making, this book could not arrive at a better time, because its subject is one of the most pressing themes of our era: impunity. Weaving together a globe-trotting legal thriller, a personal history and a twin portrait of a pair of mass murderers - one a fugitive Nazi, the other a head of state - Sands has created an indelible and enthralling work of moral witness -- PATRICK RADDEN KEEFE Meticulously researched, delicately told - through jaw dropping interviews with those who witnessed Pinochet's acts first hand. This kind of scholarship has the power to change the world. Devastating and brilliant -- EMILY MAITLIS The pace of a thriller novel, meticulously recorded and filled with urgent moral and political questions, this is Philippe Sands at his very best -- IAN RANKIN 38 Londres Street is many books, but especially two: on the one hand, an absorbing thriller where the fates of the bloodthirsty Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and the Nazi war criminal Walther Rauff intertwine, as do the present and the past, fiction and reality, chance and necessity; on the other hand, a profound, lucid and indispensable reflection on justice and impunity in a world that aspires or should aspire to universal justice. This is not only the most ambitious book Philippe Sands has written, but also his best. An enthralling read -- JAVIER CERCAS In 38 Londres Street Philippe Sands combines the tone of the thriller with an astute and dramatic account of a most complex and fascinating legal case. Since Sands was present in court, there is an urgency in the narrative and a sharp sense of what was at stake. The book also offers a vivid picture of the personalities involved, including Pinochet himself, his translator, the judges, the British government and the victims of Pinochet's crimes. In the background lies evil itself in the guise of a Nazi in exile, the sinister Walther Rauff. This is a brilliant and important book -- COLM TOIBIN A brilliant and gripping account -- ABDULRAZAK GURNAH An extraordinary expose of the collusion of Nazis with the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile * KIRKUS, starred review * Fascinating * JEWISH CHRONICLE * A remarkable book . . . It is the relentless pursuit of this hidden and repulsive past that gives 38 Londres Street its startling originality, turning it into a tour de force that extends its reach far beyond what we typically envisage from a book about human rights . . . Sands's book takes on the pace of a thriller . . . A masterful work -- Ariel Dorfman * NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS * Marvellous and absorbing . . . Sands is a consummate storyteller * NEW YORK TIMES * A true masterpiece. Utterly compelling, a staggering piece of research and beautifully written -- HENRY MARSH