La part de l'autre

La Part de l'autre ("The One Part or The Other", also called "The Alternative Hypothesis") is a 2001 alternate history novel by Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt, the plot serving to illustrate the writer's ideas of Moral Philosophy. It consists of a fictionalized biography of Adolf Hitler, sticking to the known facts of Hitler's life, in parallel with the fictional alternative biography the world-famous painter known as "Adolf H." - the person which Hitler could have become. According to Schmitt, "The minute which changed the course of world history" is the moment when a member of the jury of the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts uttered the words "Adolf Hitler: Failed". The historical character, angry and bitter at being rejected by the academy, feeling that he deserved to be accepted and that he must have been the victim of some kind of conspiracy, begins to descend the path that would eventually lead him to be the rabble-rousing leader of the Nazi Party and the dictator of Nazi Germany. Conversely, in the alternative reality where the jury member said "Adolf Hitler: Accepted", the young Hitler is deliriously happy to enter the academy, where he discovers a world of feelings that his less fortunate double would never know - eventually leading to his becoming the highly successful painter Adolf H. October 8, 1908 - "Adolf Hitler: failed". "What would have happened if the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts had decided otherwise? What would have happened if, on that minute, the jury had accepted and not rejected Adolf Hitler, if it would have fulfilled his artistic ambitions? That minute would have changed the course of a life, that of the young, shy and passionate Adolf Hitler, but it would also have changed the course of the whole world..." The book includes two parallel scenarios: First, Adolf Hitler's life is described, from October 8, 1908, until his death on April 30, 1945, and also including the consequences and further ramifications of his dictatorship - such as the Cold War, the Partition of Germany and the founding of Israel.