Quizlit\u2019s Book of the Month November 2025 is the amazing The Director by Daniel Kehlmann. A visionary tale inspired by the life of the 20th century film director G.W. Pabst<\/p>\n
This post may contain affiliate links that earn us a commission at no extra cost to you.<\/em><\/p>\n Buy Now<\/strong>: Amazon<\/a> | Abebooks<\/a><\/p>\n A visionary tale inspired by the life of the 20th century film director G.W. Pabst, who left Europe for Hollywood to resist the Nazis and then returned to his homeland with his wife and young son and began making films for the German Reich.<\/p>\n An artist\u2019s life, a pact with the devil, a novel about the dangerous illusions of the silver screen.<\/p>\n G.W. Pabst, one of cinema\u2019s greatest, perhaps the greatest director of his era: when the Nazis seized power he was filming in France, to escape the horrors of the new Germany he flees to Hollywood. But under the blinding California sun, the world-famous director suddenly looks like a nobody. Not even Greta Garbo, who he made famous, can help him. <\/p>\n And thus, almost through no fault of his own, he finds himself back in his homeland of Austria, which is now called Ostmark. The returning family is confronted with the barbaric nature of the regime. But Goebbels, the minister of propaganda in Berlin, wants the film genius<\/a>, he won\u2019t take no for an answer and makes big promises. While Pabst still believes that he will be able to resist these advances, that he will not submit to any dictatorship other than art, he has already taken the first steps into a hopeless entanglement.<\/p>\n Daniel Kehlmann\u2019s novel about art and power, beauty and barbarism is a triumph. The Director shows what literature is capable of.<\/p>\n \u201cPowerful and timely.\u201d \u201cEnthralling\u2026thoroughly satisfying\u2026both a vivid depiction of those circumstances and a captivating portrait of the artist navigating them.\u201d \u201cSmartly entertaining\u2026a marvelous performance \u2014 not only supple, horrifying and mordantly droll, but fluidly translated and absolutely convincing.\u201d \u201cEngrossing\u2026lands in the United States at a good time\u2026.With a page-turning narrative that is both technically sophisticated and intellectually engaging, The Director sits at the charmed intersection of commercial and literary fiction.\u201d \u201cWith The Director, the author pushes his affinity for reimagining dark historical moments into yet more provocative territory\u2026nothing short of brilliant.\u201d \u201cTaut, unflinching\u2026sharply observed\u2026incisive, sweeping\u2026arresting.\u201d Buy Now<\/strong>: Amazon<\/a> | Abebooks<\/a><\/p>\n He\u2019s a trickster, a player, a jester. His handshake\u2019s like a pact with the devil, his smile like a crack in the clouds; he\u2019s watching you now and he\u2019s gone when you turn. Tyll Ulenspiegel is here!<\/p>\n In a village like every other village in Germany, a scrawny boy balances on a rope between two trees. He\u2019s practising. He practises by the mill, by the blacksmiths; he practises in the forest at night, where the Cold Woman whispers and goblins roam. When he comes out, he will never be the same.<\/p>\n Tyll will escape the ordinary villages. In the mines he will defy death. On the battlefield he will run faster than cannonballs. In the courts he will trick the heads of state. As a travelling entertainer, his journey will take him across the land and into the heart of a never-ending war.<\/p>\n A prince\u2019s doomed acceptance of the Bohemian throne has European armies lurching brutally for dominion and now the Winter King casts a sunless pall. Between the quests of fat counts, witch-hunters and scheming queens, Tyll dances his mocking fugue; exposing the folly of kings and the wisdom of fools.<\/p>\n With macabre humour and moving humanity, Daniel Kehlmann lifts this legend from medieval German folklore and enters him on the stage of the Thirty Years\u2019 War. When citizens become the playthings of politics and puppetry, Tyll, in his demonic grace and his thirst for freedom, is the very spirit of rebellion \u2013 a cork in water, a laugh in the dark, a hero for all time.<\/p>\nBook of the Month November 2025<\/h2>\n
The Director by Daniel Kehlmann<\/h2>\n
\u2014Jonathan Lemire, MSNBC\u2019S Morning Joe<\/p>\n
\u2014Malcolm Forbes, Washington Post<\/p>\n
\u2014J. Hoberman, The New York Times<\/p>\n
\u2014Julia M. Klein, Los Angeles Times<\/p>\n
\u2014Donna Rifkind, Wall Street Journal<\/p>\n
\u2014Lauren LeBlanc, Boston Globe<\/p>\nAlso by Daniel Kehlmann<\/h2>\n