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Parting
Parting is a lighthearted yet melancholic love story of the last precious hours before exile, fascism and war.
The young legal trainee Raimund travels from Berlin to Paris to visit his girlfriend, the lively and free-spirited Teddy. It is the interwar period, a time when life still sparkles.
Together with Teddy's colorful entourage - the charming bon vivant Franz, the serious Mademoiselle Gault, the eccentric Mr. Andrews, and a motley crew of artists and lost souls - they roam through Parisian cafés and restaurants, celebrating their freedom, aware that nothing will stay as it is.
In this way a day and night full of lightness and longing unfold, with the inevitable farewell ever-present in their minds.
W&N Essential, translated by Michael Hofmann
The young legal trainee Raimund travels from Berlin to Paris to visit his girlfriend, the lively and free-spirited Teddy. It is the interwar period, a time when life still sparkles.
Together with Teddy's colorful entourage - the charming bon vivant Franz, the serious Mademoiselle Gault, the eccentric Mr. Andrews, and a motley crew of artists and lost souls - they roam through Parisian cafés and restaurants, celebrating their freedom, aware that nothing will stay as it is.
In this way a day and night full of lightness and longing unfold, with the inevitable farewell ever-present in their minds.
W&N Essential, translated by Michael Hofmann
165 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 17, 2026
About the author
Sebastian Haffner
36 books185 followersSebastian Haffner (the pseudonym for Raimund Pretzel) was a German journalist and author whose focus was the history of the German Reich (1871-1945). His books dealt with the origins and course of the First World War, the failure of the Weimar Republic and the subsequent rise and fall of Nazi Germany under Hitler.
In 1938 he emigrated from Nazi Germany with his Jewish fiancée to London, hardly able to speak English but becoming rapidly proficient in the language. He adopted the pseudonym Sebastian Haffner so that his family back in Germany would not be endangered by his writing.
Haffner wrote for the London Sunday newspaper, The Observer, and then became its editor-in-chief. In 1954, he became its German correspondent in Berlin, a position which he kept until the building of the Berlin Wall.
He wrote for the German newspaper, Die Welt, until 1962, and then until 1975 was a columnist for the Stern magazine. Haffner was a frequent guest on the television show Internationaler Frühschoppen and had his own television program on the German channel, Sender Freies Berlin.
In 1938 he emigrated from Nazi Germany with his Jewish fiancée to London, hardly able to speak English but becoming rapidly proficient in the language. He adopted the pseudonym Sebastian Haffner so that his family back in Germany would not be endangered by his writing.
Haffner wrote for the London Sunday newspaper, The Observer, and then became its editor-in-chief. In 1954, he became its German correspondent in Berlin, a position which he kept until the building of the Berlin Wall.
He wrote for the German newspaper, Die Welt, until 1962, and then until 1975 was a columnist for the Stern magazine. Haffner was a frequent guest on the television show Internationaler Frühschoppen and had his own television program on the German channel, Sender Freies Berlin.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 28, 2026
didn’t enjoy this as much as i thought i would from the blurb? there’s a lot of bits in between where it does seem like i needed to have already read stuff he previously wrote to catch up on the friendship contexts? ending was very moving as expected though
October 3, 2026
It was irritating and charming, parts he wrote beautifully and I feel the heartache after.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews