Love in a Time of Hate

A brilliantly conceived and uniquely different cultural history of the 1930s, written with confident, alluring poise. Fascinating and revelatory -- William Boyd, author * Trio *
Florian Illies's whirling cultural history, Love in a Time of Hate, captures an era of unmatched hedonism ... there's the thrill of discovery on every page -- Jasper Rees * Daily Telegraph *
The experimental sex lives of the artists and thinkers of the roaring 20s are set against the burgeoning threat of fascism in this wickedly amusing and timely book -- Peter Conrad * The Observer *
Partly as a result of the book's organising conceit, and Illies's often arch prose style, Love in a Time of Hate achieves something that is really rather impressive - turning the great moral dramas of the 20th century into breathless melodrama. -- John Maier * The Times *
A brilliantly readable and evocative social history ... beginning with the build up to the Great Depression and ending with the outbreak of war, Florian Illies's superb new book explores the complicated personal and creative lives of everyone from Marlene Dietrich and the Mann family to Salvador Dalí, and F Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald * Irish Times *
It takes a skilful hand to arrange these vignettes into a dramatic image of the world slipping into catastrophe ... This erudite history covers much ground -- Anna Aslanyan * Spectator *
In a revealing, offbeat slice of cultural history, Florian Illies traces the tangled affairs of Europe's intelligentsia against the backdrop of the rise of fascism ... Illies, a German writer, brings a light touch and conversational style to his mosaic view of a pivotal period ... he astutely weaves these diverse stories into a fluent, widescreen narrative * Business Post *
Engaging ... Illies immerses us in a stream of gossip and political rumour, in love affairs past and present, somehow carried on amid great personal achievements and terrible folly. There is a Freudian element and no little writerly brilliance in the way Illies asks: what did these people mean by love? ... This, then, was Europe in love * TLS *
Highly novelistic ... wisecracking ... skilfully composed * History Today *
Love in a Time of Hate invites us to consider that history is as much an accretion of small gestures as it is a catalogue of battles and speeches. At once intimate and epic, this dazzling book illuminates the human desire to seek connection and coherence as the world descends into chaos. A brilliant and imaginative tour de force -- Rebecca Donner, author * All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days: The True Story of the Woman at the Heart of the German Resistance to Hitler *
Set against the relentless rise of Nazi terror, this ingenious narrative evokes the 1930s through the loves, foibles and tragedies of the cultural elite. Strikingly original, utterly absorbing. -- Julia Boyd, author * Travellers in the Third Reich *
Please do read this book - it is gorgeous. I learned so many new things about love, art and the horror of history -- Ferdinand von Schirach, author * The Collini Case *
This is candid, unsparing and gripping social history viewed through the prism of two- and three-person relationships - simultaneously disenchanting and endearing. A bravura performance -- Harald Jähner, author * Aftermath *
Praise for Florian Illies: 'Illies is as astute a researcher as he is an observer of the zeitgeist * Guardian *
A vivid, richly textured book that chronicles a world crackling with talent, energy and foreboding * Financial Times *
An absolute gem of a book * Observer *
Thorough and fascinating * Time Out *
Love in a Time of Hate assembles a huge multinational cast of celebrity couples, from Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir to Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, or Erich Maria Remarque and Marlene Dietrich. It races them through a hyper-mobile frieze of lovemaking and art-making against darkening skies. Illies moves fast along a Paris-Berlin axis, with brisk side-trips to Bavaria, the Riviera and New York ... Spats, scandals and seductions unroll like a conveyor-belt of fruity, lurid Jazz Age cocktails. To enjoy it best: sip, don't gulp. However, the narrative picks up weight and urgency as fascism imperils his luminaries, body and soul. -- Financial Times * Financial Times *