In the summer of 1936, while the rest of the world sits on the brink of war, an “émigré society” of authors and journalists – many Jewish – all opposed to and banned by Nazi Germany, try to continue with their lives and work in Ostend. Here, two Jewish writers, the calm, successful Stefan Zweig and his alcoholic friend, Joseph Roth, find sanctuary and a temporary home.
Summer Before the Dark intimately explores Zweig and Roth’s co-dependent friendship. Their influence on each other’s writing and the common themes they explore reflect the other things they and the other émigré writers share: their loneliness, dejection and desperate but futile struggle to keep alive a sense of hope. Weidermann gives us a glimpse of what was, to many of these writers, a brief but rare home, soon to be destroyed during the second world war, along with many of their lives.
Summer Before the Dark is published by Pushkin Press (£12.99). Click here to order a copy for £10.39
