Come In and Shut the Door

'One of Britain's most visionary writers', David Peace ‘That uniquely valuable writer and independent film-maker Chris Petit’, Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian 'A tale for our feverish times ... It's fascinating to wander round Petit's baroque imagination.' The Times

THE FINAL DAYS OF ADOLF HITLER ARE SHROUDED IN MYSTERY. WHAT REALLY HAPPENED IN THAT BERLIN BUNKER? AND WHAT HAPPENEND NEXT?

When Parker loses his faith and quits studying for the priesthood, he finds himself back in London, looking for employment. He accepts an offer to work as amanuensis to the sinister Robinson, who earns a living as a collector of dubious historical objects.

Parker’s duties involve meeting those who have an interest in purchasing the kinds of artefacts in which Robinson specialises. As he becomes immersed in a world of secret histories, Parker discovers things that will lead him into the darkest corners of 20th-century history and that great fault line of civilisation, institutional corruption, of which he is a victim.

With a cast of corrupt police officers, property speculators, Russian Mafiosi, abusive Roman Catholic priests, Second World War bomber pilots, Eva Braun, Martin Bormann and Adolf Hitler, Come in and Shut the Door is a bold, brave and scatological masterpiece by one of our best and most original writers.

‘Chris Petit is a master of the dark thriller arts. Come In and Shut the Door pushes open a clandestine entrance into another dimension, a Visconti-like world beyond the edge of night.’ Nicholas Shakespeare

© 2025 Simon & Schuster Audio UK (Audiobook): 9781398523012

Release date

Audiobook: 3 April 2025