The Writers' Castle - by Uwe Neumahr (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A gripping new approach to the Nuremberg Trial, told through the stories of the many great writers who came to witness it

"A riveting group portrait that puts these celebrity reporters in the spotlight... An engaging blend of gossipy anecdote and precise, thought-provoking analysis" -- Financial Times

Nuremberg, 1945. As the trials of Nazi war criminals begin, some of the world's most famous writers and reporters gather in the ruined German city. Among them are Rebecca West, John Dos Passos, Martha Gellhorn, Erika Mann and Janet Flanner.

Crammed together in the press camp at Schloss Faber-Castell, where reporters sleep ten to a room and complain about the food and argue in the lively bar, they each try to find words for the unprecedented events they are witnessing. Here, tensions simmer between Soviet and Western journalists, unlikely affairs begin, stories are falsified and fabricated--and each reporter is forever changed by what they experience.

As Uwe Neumahr builds an engrossing group portrait of the literary luminaries at Nuremberg, readers are taken to the heart of the political and cultural conflicts of the time--observing history at the very moment it was being written.

Providing fascinating accounts of his subjects' experiences at Nuremberg, Neumahr shows how those experiences marked their future lives, as well as their approaches to writing. What emerges is both a multi-faceted depiction of the trials as a unique mass-media event, but also as a public reckoning with evil that had untold private reverberations for all who witnessed it.

Review Quotes

"Neumahr's book centres on the authors of history's first draft... Perhaps most compelling is its exploration of the act of writing when words seem so profoundly inadequate"
--Observer

About the Author

Uwe Neumahr is an author and literary agent who holds a PhD in Romance and German Studies. He has previously written biographies of historical figures from the Renaissance and Early Modern periods, including Miguel de Cervantes.

Jefferson Chase is the translator of some 40 books from German to English, including works by Thomas Mann, Volker Ullrich and Wolfgang Schivelbusch. He lives in Berlin.