In Philip K. Dick's dystopian novel The Man in the High Castle, what fictional book challenges the official history of World War II?

In Philip K. Dick's dystopian novel The Man in the High Castle, the fictional book challenging official history is The Grasshopper Lies Heavy.

Written by the mysterious Hawthorne Abendsen, the book imagines an alternative outcome in which the Allied powers win World War II. It is banned in the Axis-controlled territories because its version of history undermines the political legitimacy of the ruling powers.

The title comes from Ecclesiastes 12:5, and the novel's title character is said to live in a fortified high castle. Readers sometimes confuse The Grasshopper Lies Heavy with Dick's own novel; it is a book within the book, not the title of the overall work.

The Man in the High Castle was published in 1962 and won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1963. Its use of nested fiction makes historical truth itself part of the novel's central political conflict.