The fist of God

This article is about Forsyth's novel. For the television series of the same name, see Lasko - Die Faust Gottes

The Fist of God is a 1994 novel by Frederick Forsyth set in the context of the 1991 Gulf War .

novel

The novel was first published in 1994 under the title The Fist of God by BCA. The German edition was translated from the English by Wulf Bergner . It was first published in 1994 by Bertelsmann Verlag in Munich up to the fourth edition. In the same year it was published as a special edition by Orbis-Verlag. In 1995 it was published by the Bertelsmann Club as an unabridged book club licensed edition and a year later by Goldmann as a paperback. Then came a new release in 2004 and a new edition in 2008.

overview

The title comes from the designation "Qubth-ut-Allah", "Fist of God" by Saddam Hussein for an atomic bomb. Like several other Forsyth novels, the novel is about a "what-if" scenario. He assumes that the then Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was in possession of an atomic bomb . Accordingly, the attack on Kuwait in 1990 with the intention of forcing the Americans to intervene and throw the atom bomb with the help of a super cannon at the massive American troops. According to the state of knowledge in 1990, such a scenario was quite conceivable.

content

The use of the atomic bomb is said to be thwarted by British agent Mike Martin, who grew up in Baghdad, speaks perfect Arabic with an Iraqi tone and is smuggled into his old hometown. He maintains contact with an informant, unknown to him, from the inner circle of leaders of Saddam Hussein's government, code name "Jericho". The Israeli secret service Mossad is also interested in the informant , trying to name the Iraqi informant via his Austrian numbered account - and possibly clearing his account right away.

The book is linked to the historical events of 1990/91. It doesn't just contain a layered agent story. Various think tanks in secret service circles are also described in detail, where one tries to put oneself in the shoes of Saddam Hussein and to make sense of his personality. The activities and needs of ordinary army and air force members are also discussed in detail.

From the point of view of Saddam Hussein's disempowerment in 2003, a fictional memorandum by the American strategic staff is interesting: Saddam Hussein should not be killed or disempowered, otherwise anarchy in Iraq is threatened. Hannes Hintermeier writes about Forsyth and his work in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung : “He ... smells the topics, sets them precisely, be it 1974 with ' The Dogs of War ' ...; be it the growing thrillers from the world of the secret services ('The fourth protocol' 1984; 'Die Faust Gottes' 1994). "

background

Frederick Forsyth has drawn on the memoirs of General H. Norman Schwarzkopf several times for the historical background and incorporated it into the plot right down to the literal quote ("Okay, let's get to work", "Maybe Saddam wants to throw an atomic bomb in here?").

On the other hand, he did improper research when he describes in Chapter 12 how a head secretary of a Viennese private bank allows a Mossad agent to lure her with an opera card: although she is an ardent music lover, she has never been to the opera because she would never have one Can afford card. The Vienna State Opera offers (and back then did) standing tickets at a ridiculous price, you just have to queue for them.

literature

• Frederick Forsyth, Die Faust Gottes , Goldmann Verlag, ISBN 978-3-442-46752-5
• Frederick Forsyth, Die Faust Gottes , Goldmann Verlag 2004, ISBN 978-3-442-45771-7
• Schwarzkopf, H. Norman: You don't have to be a hero , Munich 1992, ISBN 3-570-01594-7

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hannes Hintermeier: Frederick Forsyth on the seventieth: The researcher . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. August 25, 2008. Retrieved May 28, 2010.