Hartlaub

A unique testament to the persistence of ordinary life through the disaster of modern war, perfect for fans of books like Suite Française

Sharply immediate, evocative diaries from the heart of Occupied Paris in World War II by a classic German writer, in English for the first time

The writer Felix Hartlaub died in obscurity at just 31, vanishing from Berlin in 1945. He left behind a small oeuvre of private writings from the Second World War: fragments and observations of life from the midst of catastrophe that, with their evocative power and precision, would make a permanent place for him in German letters.

Posted to Paris in 1940 to conduct archival research, Hartlaub recorded his impressions of the unfamiliar city in notebooks that document with unparalleled immediacy the daily realities of occupation.

With a painter’s eye for detail, Hartlaub writes of the bustle of civilians and soldiers in cafés, of half-seen trysts during blackout hours and the sublime light of Paris in spring.

Felix Hartlaub grew up in Mannheim, the son of an art historian and museum director who was ejected from his post by the Nazis in 1933 for his support of ’degenerate’ art. Hartlaub studied history and was called up immediately upon graduating in 1939. Initially serving in a barrage balloon unit, he was sent to Paris in late 1940 to do archival research for the German foreign office, using his spare time to document the city in the notebooks that comprise Clouds Over Paris. He would continue writing diaries throughout the war up until he went missing in Berlin in May 1945.

Simon Beattie is an antiquarian bookseller, literary translator, and choral composer. His previous translations include works by the banned gay writer Friedo Lampe, Gottfried Benn and Rainer Maria Rilke.

Rüdiger Görner is Professor of German with Comparative Literature at Queen Mary, University of London and the Founding Director of the Centre for Anglo-German Cultural Relations.