I thought I had possibly read enough novels about World War II. I stand corrected.

One of my book clubs selected The Director, by Daniel Kehlmann – originally published in German in 2023, and in English translation in 2025 – as this month’s read. It is not to be missed, if that period of history interests you at all.

The Director tells a lightly fictionalized version of the life of the great Austrian filmmaker G.W. Pabst. It considers the morality of making art sponsored by an immoral regime. Pabst and his wife were trapped in Germany after war broke out. In Kehlmann’s novel, they also have a son who must make his way in a place they never meant to stay.

Life under the Nazi regime presents a series of choices for Pabst, his wife, and their son. They are essentially under house arrest, as the former caretaker of their home becomes their jailer.

Each member of the family copes in more and less effective ways, as the world goes mad around them. Love grows, and falters. There is unraveling; there is delirium; there is survival.

***

The New York Times selected The Director as one of its top 10 Books of 2025, after initially identifying it as one of its 100 Notable Books of 2025:

Movie stars and Nazis are irresistible ingredients in any book. Kehlmann’s smartly entertaining new novel about the great Austrian filmmaker G.W. Pabst offers both, detailing their intimate, often symbiotic ties. “The Director” is a marvelous performance — not only supple, horrifying and mordantly droll, but fluidly translated by Ross Benjamin and absolutely convincing.

For fans of “Mercury Pictures Presents,” by Anthony Marra; and “A Gentleman in Moscow,” by Amor Towles

***

Categorized in:

Fiction

Tagged in:

, ,