Book Group: The Director
A tale inspired by the life of film director G.W. Pabst, who fled to Hollywood to resist the Nazis only to be forced to return to his homeland and create propaganda films for the German Reich. The Group will meet on Jan 11th at a Center City home. Space is limited.
About the Book:
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 - he will not submit to any dictatorship other than art - he has already taken the first steps into a hopeless entanglement.
This outstanding book received distinction as the
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NEW YORK TIMES TOP 10 BOOK OF THE YEAR
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NYPL BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
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Washington Post NOTABLE BOOK
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A Late Show with Stephen Colbert Book Club Pick
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“Nothing short of brilliant.” - The Wall Street Journal
About the Author:
Daniel Kehlmann was born in Munich in 1975 and lives in Vienna, Berlin and New York. His works include “Measuring the World”, “Me & Kaminski”, “Fame and F”, and has won numerous prizes, including the Candide Prize, the Literature Prize for the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, the Doderer Prize, the Kleist Prize, the WELT Literature Prize and the Thomas Mann Prize. “Measuring the World” was translated into more than forty languages and is one of the biggest successes in postwar German literature.
Host / Lead Organizer: Susan Robinson
Date: Sunday, Jan. 11th at 3:00 pm.
Location: Address will be included in confirmation email.
Coffee and tea will be provided.
Limited to 8 people.
Where:
Center City
Locust St
Philadelphia, PA 19102
[ Get Directions ]