Co-authors: Josué Guimarães, Edgar Vasques, and Luis Fernando Verissimo
How the tormented and dictatorial spirit of Adolf Hitler left the ashes of occupied Berlin and ended up on the calm shores of a beach at the southern tip of the world.
Get Ready for Kaputt! was first published in December 1977 and has long been a success. The book began as a joke among friends and has become a true classic in the small world of collective works.
April 30, 1945 – Soviet tanks roll through the streets of a devastated Berlin. In his secret bunker, Adolf Hitler is huddled with his aides. What Hitler is discussing is the Eye of the Phoenix plan, a complicated scheme destined to ensure his escape to Latin America, where he has no shortage of friends. To avoid suspicion, Hitler must disguise himself as an Orthodox rabbi.
From the ruins of World War II emerges this tale of mystery, crime, hatred, love, mystery (again), and above all, humor, a challenge three fiction writers and a cartoonist mutually took on, each trying to outdo the other. A brief, basic set of rules was established. There would be nothing in the text indicating authorship (the only explicit authorship, for obvious reasons, was Edgar’s). They would draw straws to pick the order of the authors, and each author would write a chapter, passing it on to next who would be tasked with continuing the story, with no prior agreement as to theme, characters, or time frame. The story had only to be coherent and in sequence and preserve the characters.
