{"product_id":"prisoners-of-the-castle","title":"Prisoners of the Castle: An Epic Story of Survival and Escape from Colditz, the Nazis' Fortress Prison","description":"\u003cb\u003eNATIONAL BESTSELLER\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eNEW YORK TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e BESTSELLER\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom the bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eThe Spy and the Traitor\u003c\/i\u003e, a definitive and surprising new narrative of one of history's most famous prisons--and the remarkable cast of POWs who tried to relentlessly escape their Nazi captors.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe myth of Colditz, the most infamous prison in history, has stood unchallenged for 70 years: prisoners of war, mustaches firmly set on stiff upper lips, defying the Nazis by tunnelling out of a grim Gothic castle on a German hilltop. Like all legends, that story contains only part of the truth. In Ben Macintyre's brilliant, cliche-smashing new history, he offers a vision of Colditz previously unimagined, a story of much more than an escape, just as the prison's inmates were far more complicated than the cardboard saints depicted in post-war pop culture.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eColditz was a miniature replica of office-class society at the time, only far stranger: a lethal, high stakes boarding school surrounded by barbed wire, initially containing prisoners of all Allied nations, including Canada, but eventually only Britons and Americans, a heavily guarded cage with its own culture, eccentricities, and internal tensions. In intimate and compelling detail, Macintyre explores what happens to people when they are locked up without committing a crime and with no idea when or if they might be liberated. \u003ci\u003eColditz, \u003c\/i\u003ethen, is a tale of the indomitable human spirit, but also one of snobbery, class conflict, hidden sexuality, bullying, espionage, boredom, insanity, and farce.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith access to declassified archives, private papers, and never-before-seen photos, the author reveals a remarkable cast of characters, previously hidden from history: Indian doctor Birendranath Mazymdar, the only non-white prisoner, whose ill-treatment, hunger-strike and eventual escape reads like fiction; Florimond Duke, America's oldest paratrooper and least successful secret agent; Christoper Clayton Hutton, the brilliant inventor employed by British intelligence to manufacture escape aids for POWs, from maps hidden in playing cards to a compass secreted inside a walnut; and many others. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBringing together the wartime intrigue of his acclaimed \u003ci\u003eOperation Mincemeat\u003c\/i\u003e and keen psychological portraits of his bestselling true-life spy stories, Macintyre has breathed stunning new life into one of the greatest war stories ever told.","brand":"None","offers":[{"title":"Couverture souple","offer_id":46159085502641,"sku":"9780771001994","price":23.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Couverture rigide","offer_id":46159085469873,"sku":"9780771001970","price":10.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Gros caractères (2022)","offer_id":46159085535409,"sku":"9780593632079","price":41.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Livre audio","offer_id":46159085568177,"sku":"9780593629246","price":60.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Livre numérique Kobo","offer_id":46159085600945,"sku":"314e219b-66dd-3bfe-b13c-8bb9cadac35b","price":13.99,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0655\/8980\/5233\/files\/1_6056041b-55ae-4eab-bb0c-adb902c51634.jpg?v=1763718229","url":"https:\/\/www.indigo.ca\/fr\/products\/prisoners-of-the-castle","provider":"Indigo","version":"1.0","type":"link"}