Translating the title is both easy and difficult. It literally means play of light but is a a somewhat archaic German word for film or cinema, perhaps akin to the English moving picture.
The book is about the famous Austrian film director G. W. Pabst, known for his sound and silent films and also known for discovering/developing several famous actresses, including Greta Garbo, Louise Brooks and Leni Riefenstahl.
He is one of the greatest directors of his time - Georg Wilhelm Pabst, the character of the novel. When Hitler seized power in Germany, G. W. Pabst was filming in France, but the ominous news forced him to head for Hollywood. Under the scorching California sun, however, the man who had discovered Greta Garbo's talent feels like a dwarf. The old laurels do not help him, the American machine crushes him and he decides to return for a short time to his native Austria.
But the German Minister of Propaganda invited him to Berlin with the intention of using his popularity for his own purposes. G.W. Pabst did not refuse the offer and provided his talent to the dictatorial regime that wanted to rule the world through art as well. What is the result when a creator cannot resist the courtship of power and allows himself to be liked by monsters?
"A book that will be read by generations to come."
ARD
"A thrilling novel about the fatal consequences of compromise."
Die Zeit
"Everything walks the edge between realism and fiction: expressionistic film scenes and comedic dialogues, reality and cinema."
Die Welt
Daniel Kehlmann was born in 1975 in Munich, now lives in Vienna. His third novel “Measuring the World” (German: “Die Vermessung der Welt”), published in 2005, is the biggest selling novel in the German language since Patrick Süskind's Perfume was released in 1985. For this novel Kehlman has been awarded with the “Heimito von Doderer” prize.
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