Reading "Inferno: The Devastation of Hamburg"

Last year I read about this book in the Financial Times: "Inferno: The Devastation of Hamburg" by Keith Lowe. As we were planning to move here, it called my attention and, even better, it had very good reviews. However, each time I visited Hamburg, after I read about the book might have been at least 4 times, I could not find it in the bookshops in the city. I found that very strange.

This weekend, we went to my favourite bookshop for books in English, and I had in mind a book about the Italian Mafia. To my surprise I found "Inferno: The Devastation of Hamburg" and I instantly grabbed it. I bought it then on Saturday and I have been reading it for the last days and is better than I expected. Don't get me wrong, I am not interested on destruction or any other sort of similar subjects. I just like reading about history a lot. Specially when you live in the city the book is referring to.

Of the very first things that surprised me, was to read that not a single building in Hamburg is more than 60/70 years old. I remembered then the signs in some houses and buildings around the city, as the photo above, where you can read: destroyed in 1943 (or one year before or after) and rebuilt years later.

The most shocking part was to learn that, according to Keith Lowe, the destruction of Hamburg in 1943 can be compared to that of Hiroshima or Nagasaki. I have only started the book and I can already strongly recommend it.