Florian Illies

Love in a Time of Hate is recognised as a Financial Times 'Book to Read in 2023'. The 1930s in Europe—while the Roaring Twenties draw to a close and the world edges towards war, the great minds of the period are occupied with other concerns. Jean-Paul Sartre waits anxiously in a Parisian café for his first date with a no-show...

No German painter evokes such strong emotions as Caspar David Friedrich: his evening skies remain icons of longing, his mountain vistas testaments to the grandeur of nature. He inspired Samuel Beckett to write Waiting for Godot and Walt Disney to create Bambi. Goethe, however, was so enraged by the enigmatic melancholy of Friedrich’s paintings that he wanted to smash them...

Strikingly original, utterly absorbing - Julia Boyd, author of Travellers in the Third Reich A Financial Times 'Book to Read in 2023' 1930s Europe - as the Roaring Twenties wind down and the world rumbles towards war, the great minds of the time have other concerns. Jean-Paul Sartre waits anxiously in a Parisian café for his first date with no-show...