Ostend. 1936, the summer of friendship and sorrow. The last peaceful summer before World War II

The biographical novel "Ostend. 1936: the summer of friendship and sorrow" appeared in 2014. Ostend is a brilliant seaside resort, where in 1936 writers, journalists, publishers, and poets gathered – Stefan Zweig and Joseph Roth, Arthur Koestler and Ernst Toller – all those who have no place in Nazi Germany. Sun, sea, drinks. It could have just been a vacation with friends. If it weren’t for the political situation, which was worsening day by day, if they weren’t all being persecuted, if their books were not banned, if they hadn’t lost their homeland. Poets on the run, writers in exile. Volker Weidermann tells the story of that remarkable summer just before World War II with precision and depth, when the cream of German creative intelligentsia celebrates life (for most of them it will soon be cut short), as only completely desperate people can do.