Because there was no sixties upsurge of social liberalism and decriminalisation of homosexuality in (Nazi-occupied) Western Europe in this world, in the US the latter is still a felony and racial segregation is still active. Michael learns that the water from the well in Hitler's home town was used to create "Braunau Water", which was the instrument to sterilise the European Jews, wiping them out in one generation. Fry successfully establishes Michael’s character as a wunderkind bedevilled with increasing insecurities as his peers are rapidly catching up, if not overhauling his precocious giftedness. I particularly enjoyed how Fry shows the same scene, set during World War I, twice, once from the original timeline and once from the timeline after Michael erases Hitler.

Michael Young is a brilliant young history student whose life is changed when he meets Leo Zuckerman, an ageing physicist with a theory that can change worlds.This makes as much sense as the old films where Germans (or other nationalities) spoke to each other in English with heavy accents so that we would know they were really speaking in German or French or whatever. I feel somewhat altered by the story of Making History and imagine it will stick with me for a long time. Later in the novel, there is another, longer film script interlude, which also had the effect of alienating me from the action – a real shame as I’d really enjoyed the book up to this point. BookPage is a recommendation guide for readers, highlighting the best new books across all genres as chosen by our editors. In fact, Michael and Zuckerman have replaced Hitler with a Nazi leader who was even more charming, patient, and effective, and as committed to the Final Solution as Hitler had been.

I was also quite amused by the comparisons between "American" and English" expressions in the book, as a Canadian, is was 50/50 as to which one was more familiar to me. Obviously, Richard Curtis stole the idea for Yesterday from me as well – Mikey literally sings Yesterday at another character because there is no Beatles in this new world. I like the alternate history told in first person perspective, and I like the extra implications for even worse and more dire consequences of the protagonist's attempt to "fix" history. When I saw that this show was in a church hall in the suburbs I thought it might be a bit "Am Dram", but not at all.

In Making History, an ambitious History PHD student at Cambridge, along with a physicist, try to do exactly that. And somewhere here Michael meets another professor, Leo Zuckerberg who somehow was able to build a machine that allows him to look at Auschwitz in 1944 (again I think that was the year, I really don't want to check again). Steve corrects Michael and reveals that, while never hearing of Hitler, he is all too aware of the Nazi Party. Leo has developed a machine that enables the past to be viewed—but it is of no practical use as the image is not resolvable into details.

The ending is lovely - and makes me wonder if we could see this as a "Wizard of Oz" dream sequence where our protagonist realizes what he really wants at the end, and seizes it. The heart-wrenching truth and circumstances surrounding the darkest period of human history and just the very idea of rewriting life as we know it, already gave a plethora of moments where I had to keep the book aside to digest the narrative. Initially he is elated and tells his new friend Steve how happy he is because Steve has never heard of Hitler, Braunau am Inn, or the Nazi Party.

His epic dissertation, 200,000 words on Hitler's early childhood, is finally done, printed out and ready to deliver.