El director

G.W. Pabst, one of the greatest film directors, perhaps the greatest of his era, is shooting in France when the Nazis come to power. Hollywood presents itself as the only escape from the horrors heralded by the new Germany, but under the blinding California sun, the famous director is a nobody, and not even Greta Garbo, the actress he launched to stardom, wants to help him. His failure and news of his elderly mother's illness will lead him back to his native Austria, now occupied, providing the perfect opportunity for Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels to once again ensnare the cinematic genius. Pabst is determined not to submit to any dictatorship and to answer only to the art of filmmaking, but the web of the Nazi machine has begun to ensnare him in a desperate position. Daniel Kehlmann masterfully portrays the Faustian pact that led to Pabst's descent into hell, as he became the filmmaker of the Third Reich. The director explores the complicated relationships between art and power, beauty and barbarity, glory and failure, in a novel that is as entertaining as it is biting.