Another excellent read -

[Bekah]

While I'm at it:  

HHhH by Laurent Binet  (tr by Sam Taylor) 2010/2012 US,  which I read earlier this month is quite likely to find itself on my "best of"  list this year.  Might be of interest to some on the list  - ??.     Here are some relevant snips from my blog - (which I really keep ONLY for my own satisfaction and memory). 
http://beckylindroos.wordpress.com/0313-2/hhhh/

"… the book is fiction -  the title,  HHhH, is an acronym for Himmlers Hirn heisst Heydrich ("Himmler's brain is called Heydrich"), a quip about Heydrich said to have circulated in Nazi Germany."
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HHhH )

>> snipped>> 

"… it’s post-modern play on a very serious event in history.  The resolution,  to me,  is that narrator /author frequently shows his struggles with bringing an historical event 'to life' with as little fictionalization as possible."
>> snipped>> 

" said,  the French author,   Laurent Binet, in his debut novel,   brings to the fore all manner of issues faced by both writers of history and some of those who write historical fiction.  He does this using the post-modernist techniques and devices of metafiction,  self-referencing,  irony,  intertextuality,  some pastiche,  poioumenon (story creation), ”historiographic metafiction,” some temporal distortion,  a bit of hyper-reality,  some paranoia,  perhaps even a bit of magical realism (at the very end).   I’m amazed." 

The frame story belongs to the narrator as protagonist describing his work creating a novel about how the  exiled Czechoslovak government,  along with British Intelligence, put together a plan to execute Reinhard Heydrich,  one of the main architects of the Holocaust.  The assassination plot was called “Operation Anthropoid.” Our narrator is obsessed by it.  And he tells us the story as he writes it,  as he almost re-lives it.  (And the translation is excellent, as far as I can tell.)"

>> snipped>> 

"Binet’s narrator wants to make history “come alive” for the reader but still stick to historical details and get them all correct and in order.   Well,  that’s interesting but most fiction writers are forever wrestling with how to make something “real” and compelling,  while non-ficiton authors tend to focus on getting the verifiable facts straight,  documenting the evidence,  making some suggestions as to an as yet unresolved issue or two, and supporting all that with evidence -  some actually enjoy  writing an engaging narrative, as well.   A novelist will sacrifice some "accuracy"  for "a good story,  well told."   HHhH is just exactly that,   "a great story,  well told."  Still,  I’d not allow anyone to use it as a history text."

Bekah
who reads a lot - (and with a better sig line)

"ALL artistic judgement is subjective. ALL artistic judgments are camouflaged autobiography. How it comes about, you don't know. Inspect yourself. " John Carey, book reviewer, London Times