WHEN FANTASTIC FUTURES BECOME HISTORY FORETOLD

N The Man in the High Castle (1962), author Philip K Dick imagines an alternative history where the Axis powers win the Second World War, and the US is divided between Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.

- C P SURENDRAN

N The Man in the High Castle (1962), author Philip K Dick imagines an alternative history where the Axis powers win the Second World War, and the US is divided between Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. In the TV adaptation of the novel, there's a shocking scene depicting a conquered New York bedecked with Nazi imagery, including swastikas in Times Square. It is still quite a chilling possibility—if you substituted China for Germany and Xi for Hitler.

The story follows a San Francisco woman who stumbles into the resistance after her sister is killed for possessing mysterious newsreels—films showing an alternative reality where the Allies won. These reels, created by the elusive 'Man in the High Castle', hint at other worlds, shaking the regime's grip. She teams up with a double agent torn between Nazi loyalty and doubt, and a Japanese trade minister wrestling with his empire's brutality.