New York Times bestselling author Salman Rushdie
Daniel Kehlmann, the finest German writer of his generation, takes on the life of the eminent film director G. W. Pabst to weave a tragicomic historical fantasia that stretches from Hollywood to Nazi Germany, from Garbo to Goebbels…A real page turner."
New York Review of Books
Kehlmann’s stunning tale of what failure looks like is a call to strengthen our spines.”
Publishers Weekly (starred review)
A searing look at the mechanics of complicity.”
Booklist (starred review)
A dark account of one man’s descent into fascist complicity.”
AudioFile
The impact of this powerful novel is heightened by Golden Voice narrator Nicholas Boulton’s keen understanding of its author’s purposes.. Captured most memorably is Nazi filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, a monster of dominance and self-regard. This is not a narrative for lengthy or casual listening—or one easily forgotten. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.”
From the Publisher
"Haunting and darkly funny."
—Etan Nechin, Haaretz
“Exhilarating...a complex entertainment—a sorrowful fable of artistic and moral collapse, but also a novel composed with entrancing freedom, even bravura...[by] the leading German novelist of his generation...an irrepressible trickster, an endlessly fertile maker of fictional modes.”
—David Denby, The New Yorker
"The Director, Kehlmann's stunning tale of what failure looks like, is a call to strengthen our spines."
—Susan Neiman, New York Review of Books
“A tasty subject for historical fiction...joins the pleasures of ‘commercial’ fiction with the moral weight of a novel of ideas.”
—Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s Fresh Air
“Powerful and timely."
—Jonathan Lemire, MSNBC'S Morning Joe
“Enthralling...thoroughly satisfying...both a vivid depiction of those circumstances and a captivating portrait of the artist navigating them.”
—Malcolm Forbes, Washington Post
"Smartly entertaining...a marvelous performance — not only supple, horrifying and mordantly droll, but fluidly translated and absolutely convincing."
—J. Hoberman, The New York Times
"Engrossing...lands in the United States at a good time....With a page-turning narrative that is both technically sophisticated and intellectually engaging, The Director sits at the charmed intersection of commercial and literary fiction."
—Julia M. Klein, Los Angeles Times
“With The Director, the author pushes his affinity for reimagining dark historical moments into yet more provocative territory...nothing short of brilliant.”
—Donna Rifkind, Wall Street Journal
“Taut, unflinching...sharply observed...incisive, sweeping...arresting.”
—Lauren LeBlanc, Boston Globe
"[Daniel Kehlmann] is a surpassingly gifted storyteller. Among his big influences are the filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen. Like them, he is a master at depicting decent people making terrible choices, with results that are both droll and catastrophic. An atmosphere of moral queasiness permeates The Director, and the author is in perfect control of the barometric pressure."
—David Segal, The New York Times
“A freely imagined conjuring of the life and career of celebrated German-language film director G.W. Pabst by one of Germany’s boldest contemporary novelists....The sheer wizardry and audacity of the storytelling...masterfully dances along the cusp of realism and surrealism, comedy and tragedy....An amazing performance by Kehlmann, who as a bonus immerses us in the filmmaking process. A wickedly entertaining, eye-opening book.”
—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
“[Kehlmann] constructs a dark account of one man’s descent into fascist complicity, a path strewn with surrealistic scenarios and chilling self-justifications in favor of art...Kehlmann’s novel is purposefully unnerving and timely.”
—Sarah Johnson, Booklist (starred review)
"Clear-eyed and propulsive...a searing look at the mechanics of complicity."
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“An incomparably accomplished and inventive piece of fiction by one of the most intelligent novelists at work today.”
—Jeffrey Eugenides, author of Middlesex
“Daniel Kehlmann, the finest German writer of his generation, takes on the life of the eminent film director G.W. Pabst to weave a tragicomic historical fantasia that stretches from Hollywood to Nazi Germany, from Garbo to Goebbels, to show how even a great artist can make, and be unmade by, moral compromises with evil. A dazzling performance and a real page turner."
—Salman Rushdie, author of Knife
“The Director is engrossing and luminous, an epic act of historical imagination and an intimate parable about moral compromise and the seductions of art. After Tyll, I wasn’t sure how Kehlmann could possibly top himself. He has. This book is a marvel.”
—Ayad Akhtar, author of Homeland Elegies
“A wonderful book about complicity and the complicity of art. It’s also funny, and brilliant.”
—Zadie Smith, author of The Fraud, via the Ezra Klein Show
“Daniel Kehlmann is shockingly brilliant, a writer of extraordinary range and grace. At times absurdist, at times horrifyingly realist, The Director asks where the moral duty of the artist resides, and how the narcissism of the artistic project can bleed into complicity.”
—Lauren Groff, author of The Vaster Wilds
Salman Rushdie
Daniel Kehlmann, the finest German writer of his generation, takes on the life of the eminent film director G.W. Pabst to weave a tragicomic historical fantasia that stretches from Hollywood to Nazi Germany, from Garbo to Goebbels, to show how even a great artist can make, and be unmade by, moral compromises with evil. A dazzling performance and a real page turner."
Lauren Groff
Daniel Kehlmann is shockingly brilliant, a writer of extraordinary range and grace. At times absurdist, at times horrifyingly realist, The Director asks where the moral duty of the artist resides, and how the narcissism of the artistic project can bleed into complicity.
Ayad Akhtar
The Director is engrossing and luminous, an epic act of historical imagination and an intimate parable about moral compromise and the seductions of art. After Tyll, I wasn’t sure how Kehlmann could possibly top himself. He has. This book is a marvel.”
Zadie Smith
A wonderful book about complicity and the complicity of art. It’s also funny, and brilliant.
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2025-05-04
A freely imagined conjuring of the life and career of celebrated German-language film director G.W. Pabst by one of Germany’s boldest contemporary novelists.
Pabst, an Austrian, first got involved in the arts while being held in a French prison camp during World War I. He formed a theater group there, then made his reputation with the silent filmsThe Joyless Street, starring Greta Garbo, andPandora’s Box, starring his forever infatuation Louise Brooks. Taking his pioneering cutting technique to Hollywood, he has his ideas brushed aside by producers who, paying little mind to his lofty reputation, force him into taking on a flimsy project that is dead on arrival. Even with World War II going on, he returns to Europe, where he makes shameless compromises with Nazi authorities to get his films financed. Desperate to finish what he considers his masterpiece,The Molander Case, before the advancing Red Army can shut everything down, he throws all caution to the wind. But his “sparklingly modern” work, based on a pulp novel, gets lost on a train—and lost to history, leading to debates over whether it ever existed. Sticklers for biographical accuracy may quibble over Kehlmann’s inventions and rewriting of history. But the sheer wizardry and audacity of the storytelling, which masterfully dances along the cusp of realism and surrealism, comedy and tragedy, deflates those objections. Scene after scene amazes, including one where the Nazi-sworn caretakers of Pabst’s Austrian castle (where his discombobulated mother resides) banish his family to the basement and another displaying Pabst’s ghoulish use of gaunt, war-depleted soldiers to fill concert hall seats for a crucial scene inMolander. All in all, an amazing performance by Kehlmann, who as a bonus immerses us in the filmmaking process.
A wickedly entertaining, eye-opening book.
