February 15 in Fiction

Literature Saturday (2009)

2/15/2003  · Ian McEwan

The entirety of Ian McEwan's novel unfolds on February 15, 2003 — the day two million people march through London against the impending invasion of Iraq, the largest demonstration in British history. Neurosurgeon Henry Perowne drives through streets full of marchers, has a minor car confrontation that escalates into something dangerous, and returns home to a family dinner that ends in violent intrusion — the question of the war he cannot resolve hanging over everything.

Literature The Man in the High Castle (2011)

2/15/1933  · Philip K. Dick

February 15, 1933 is the date Philip K. Dick's alternate history diverges from our own: Giuseppe Zangara's assassination attempt on Franklin Roosevelt — which in reality killed Chicago mayor Anton Cermak but missed FDR — here succeeds. Without Roosevelt's leadership through the Depression and the war, America weakens and eventually loses World War II; by 1962, the East Coast is under Nazi rule and the West under Japanese occupation.