Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Director

The Director

Kehlmann, Daniel
Benjamin, Ross

Hardcover

General FictionHistorical FictionLiterary Fiction

Publisher Price: $28.99

ISBN10: 1668087790
ISBN13: 9781668087794
Publisher: S&s/Summit Books
Published: May 6 2025
Pages: 352
Weight: 1.10
Height: 1.50 Width: 6.30 Depth: 9.10
Language: English
SHORTLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE - A NEW YORK TIMES TOP 10 BOOK OF THE YEAR - AN NYPL BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR - A WASHINGTON POST NOTABLE BOOK - A LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT BOOK CLUB PICK

Nothing short of brilliant. --The Wall Street Journal

From a surpassingly gifted storyteller (The New York Times), a visionary novel inspired by the life of film director G.W. Pabst, who fled to Hollywood to resist the Nazis only to return to his homeland to create propaganda films for the German Reich.

An artist's life, a pact with the devil, and the dangerous illusions of the silver screen.

G.W. Pabst, one of cinema's greatest directors of the 20th century, was filming in France when the Nazis seized power. To escape the horrors of the new and unrecognizable Germany, he fled to Hollywood. But now, under the blinding California sun, the world-famous director suddenly looks like a nobody. Not even Greta Garbo, the Hollywood actress whom he made famous, can help him.

When he receives word that his elderly mother is ill, he finds himself back in his homeland of Austria, which is now called Ostmark. Pabst, his wife, and his young son are suddenly confronted with the barbaric nature of the regime. So, when Joseph Goebbels--the minister of propaganda in Berlin--sees the potential for using the European film icon for his directorial genius and makes big promises to Pabst and his family, Pabst must consider Goebbels's thinly veiled order. While Pabst still believes that he will be able to resist these advances, that he will not submit to any dictatorship other than art, he has already taken the first steps into a hopeless entanglement.

Kehlmann's latest oeuvre explores the complicated relationships and distinctions between art and power, beauty and barbarism, cog and conspirator.

Also from

Kehlmann, Daniel

View All

Also in

Historical Fiction

View All