Tidhar, Lavie. A Man Lies Dreaming

A Man Lies Dreaming is a novel by Israeli-born author Lavie Tidhar, published in the United Kingdom in 2014. The novel consists mainly of an alternative history set in 1939, in London. In this alternative history, the Nazis did not come to power in Germany. Instead, during what is called ‘the Fall’ in 1933, Communism rose to power and instead of the Nazis deporting people to concentration camps, in this alternative history they are being put in camps themselves. Because of this, the main character of this alternative history, a Nazi called Wolf—who we later find out is actually Adolf Hitler in disguise—had to flee Germany and is now a miserable, poor private investigator in London. This story, which occupies the bulk of the novel, is embedded in a frame narrative, which reveals this alternative history to be the product of the imagination of Shomer, a former pulp fiction writer, who is now a prisoner in Auschwitz.

Tidhar, Lavie. A Man Lies Dreaming. Hodder & Stoughton General Division, 2014.