You Are the Führer's Unrequited Love by Jean-Noël Orengo - ISBN: 9780241745694
Paperback
The architect of lies, Hitler’s unrequited love, a mythmaker’s tale.

You Are the Führer's Unrequited Love

$25.68

  • Paperback

    256 pages

  • Release Date

    7 July 2026

Check Delivery Options

Summary

Which is the most seductive, truth or fiction?

This is the story of Albert Speer – The protégé. The ‘good Nazi’. The star. The mythmaker.

In 1969 Speer, Hitler’s favourite architect and Minister of Armaments and War Production, publishes his memoirs. Rewriting his own past, claiming to have known nothing about the Final Solution, he declares himself ‘collectively responsible, but not individually guilty’.

It is one of the greatest lies in history.

Jean-Noel Ore…

Book Details

ISBN-13:9780241745694
ISBN-10:0241745691
Author:Jean-Noël Orengo, Dr David Watson
Publisher:Penguin Books Ltd
Imprint:Penguin Classics
Format:Paperback
Number of Pages:256
Release Date:7 July 2026
Weight:282g
Dimensions:216mm x 136mm x 21mm
Series:Penguin International Writers
What They're Saying

Critics Review

A masterfully unconventional novel about Speer’s two lives: as Hitler’s personal architect, ally and confidant; and as the world’s idealised specimen of a “good Nazi”… It reads as the character study of a man who manipulated one of the most powerful men on Earth – Vincenzo Latronico * Guardian *
The truth behind ‘the good Nazi’… thought-provoking… a hybrid of historical essay and novel – Magdalena Miecznicka * Financial Times *
Portraying Speer’s trajectory from urban planner to minister for armaments (and, eventually, jail after the Nuremberg trials), it unfolds as a chillingly ordinary workplace drama… Orengo’s highly effective storytelling technique mixes an elegant filleting of secondary sources with crisp reflections of truth and falsehood * Daily Mail *
An intriguing factual novel… thought-provoking. It makes you think hard about culpability, about the struggle to keep your sense of right and wrong in a totalitarian system – Robbie Millen * Sunday Times *
Superb… a work of metahistory… Like a mystery, it is concerned with guilt and accountability… The reader of this lucid, elegant novel is left to reflect on the many ways in which, in the wrong hands, art and memory can conspire to obscure as well as to illuminate – Barry Langford * The Conversation *
In telling Speer’s story, Orengo largely forsakes traditional fiction techniques… this allies the book with other self-consciously historical novels, or novelistic histories, including Laurent Binet’s HHhH, Eric Vuillard’s The Order of the Day and Benjamin Labatut’s The Maniac – Chris Power * Observer *
A stark exploration of Albert Speer … surgical, almost forensic in its historical investigation * Irish Times *
A wonderfully intelligent and radical portrait of Albert Speer. Fascinating, a triumph – William Boyd

About The Author

Jean-Noël Orengo

Jean-Noel Orengo (Author)

Jean-Noel Orengo was born in Paris in 1975. Highly acclaimed in France, You Are the Führer’s Unrequited Love is his fifth novel. It was shortlisted for many awards, including the Goncourt Prize.

David Watson (Translator)

David Watson has translated numerous books from French, including novels by Ágota Kristóf, Alina Reyes, André Gide, and Georges Simenon.

Returns

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.