Ostend

by Volker Weidermann, Dennis Kleinman (Narrator)

It's the summer of 1936, and writer Stefan Zweig is in crisis. His German publisher no longer wants him, his marriage is collapsing, and his home in Austria has been seized. He's been dreaming of Ostend, the Belgian beach town. So he journeys there with his new lover, Lotte Altmann, and reunites with his semiestranged fellow writer and close friend, Joseph Roth. For a moment they create a fragile paradise. But as Europe begins to crumble around them, the writers find themselves trapped on vacation, in exile, watching the world burn.

In Ostend, Volker Weidermann lyrically recounts the summer before the dark, when a group found themselves in limbo while Europe teetered on the edge of fascism and total war.

Audible Audio

Published January 26, 2016

About the author

He studied political science and German language and literature studies. He works as literary critic for the weekly Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.