From time to time, a book comes out that makes you read through the night and feel sad once finished. If you’re after this experience, go and get “1913” by German author Florian Illies. Now. I mean, as in right now. It just came out in English (and I really hope the translation is as witty as the original) and was a mega bestseller in Germany last year.
It takes readers through the momentous year of 1913 and does so in the most original way – you’ll laugh, you’ll learn, you’ll like it. (But don’t ask me for your money back if not). In any case, this review about an “absolute gem of a book” says it much better. By the way, this Illies guy, a bit of a wunderkind, is annoyingly clever. Prolific journalist, founder of a magazine and then he had this genius idea some years ago to sum up how us German children growing up in the eighties feel about life and such in “Generation Golf”, his first bestselling book. Ah, well, just saying.