About This Novel
"Invasion" is a political fantasy novel, a late work by the American best-selling author Van Loon, and one of his only two novels. Van Loon said that this novel in which he is the protagonist is "a dirty and despicable little book in the style of Goebbels." When this book was first published in the United States in 1940, it was subtitled "Eyewitness Accounts of the Nazi Invasion of the United States." This book dramatically shows how events that have happened in Europe will be repeated on this side of the Atlantic in the United States: New York is invaded by the Nazis, and the American authorities withhold concessions in order not to anger Hitler. To add documentary authenticity to what he wrote, Van Loon placed himself, his family, neighbors, and friends at center stage during the Nazi invasion, referring to them by their real names or nicknames. The sense of crisis that Van Rooster wanted to convey to Americans was not far-fetched in light of subsequent events: the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor using an aircraft carrier and the landing of Nazi saboteurs on the eastern end of Long Island near New York City. In a letter to the editor of the newspaper, Van Loon stated that his fictitious invasion of New York had already occurred in Norway, and that he had simply replaced Oslo with New York. His intention was to arouse people's hatred of the German rulers and the realization that they could no longer retreat into the ivory tower and ignore right and wrong.
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