Kirjahaku

The former director of the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm makes his literary debut with this dramatic and riveting novel of book publishing, émigrés, spies, and diplomats in World War II Sweden, based on his grandfather’s life In 1933, after Hitler and the Nazi Party consolidated power in Germany, Immanuel Birnbaum, a German-Jewish journalist based in Warsaw, is forbidden from writing for newspapers in his homeland. Six years later, just months before the German invasion of Poland that ignites World War II, Immanuel escapes to Sweden with his wife and two young sons. Living as a refugee in Stockholm, Immanuel continues to write, contributing articles to a liberal Swiss newspaper under the name Dr. B. He becomes increasingly entangled with British intelligence agents who plan several acts of sabotage on the orders of Winston Churchill. But when the Swedish postal service picks up a letter written in invisible ink, clearly by Dr. B. himself, the Allied plotters are exposed. But could a Jew living in exile and targeted for death by the Nazis have wanted to tip them off? Illuminated by the wartime experiences of the author’s grandfather, Dr. B. is a riveting story of émigrés, spies and diplomats that shines a light on a forgotten corner of World War II history. ‘A superb thriller, a cross between Tom Stoppard’s Travesties and The Thirty-Nine Steps … You can’t put it down. This is an astonishing debut and Daniel Birnbaum is clearly a talent to look out for’ The Jewish Chronicle ‘If you’re looking for a ridiculously brilliant story, you can stop looking … He’s got the world’s best story – he’s got Dr B’ Svenska Dagbladet ‘An astonishing thriller-novel … reminiscent of both Hjalmar Söderberg’s Doctor Glass as well as the dreamy melancholy in The Rings of Saturn by W.G Sebald’ Aftonbladet ‘A moving evocation of a life beset by conflicts in a troubled time’ Kirkus Reviews

The former director of the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm makes his literary debut with this dramatic and riveting novel of book publishing, emigres, spies, and diplomats in World War II Sweden based on his grandfather's life

The former director of the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm makes his literary debut with this dramatic and riveting novel of book publishing, émigrés, spies, and diplomats in World War II Sweden based on his grandfather’s life In 1933, after Hitler and the Nazi Party consolidated power in Germany, Immanuel Birnbaum, a German-Jewish journalist based in Warsaw, is forbidden from writing for newspapers in his homeland. Six years later, just months before the German invasion of Poland that ignites World War II, Immanuel escapes to Sweden with his wife and two young sons. Living as a refugee in Stockholm, Immanuel continues to write, contributing articles to a liberal Swiss newspaper under the name Dr. B. He becomes increasingly entangled with British intelligence agents who plan several acts of sabotage on the orders of Winston Churchill. But when the Swedish postal service picks up a letter written in invisible ink, clearly by Dr. B. himself, the Allied plotters are exposed. But could a Jew living in exile and targeted for death by the Nazis have wanted to tip them off? Illuminated by the wartime experiences of the author’s grandfather, Dr. B. is a riveting story of émigrés, spies and diplomats that shines a light on a forgotten corner of World War II history. ‘A superb thriller, a cross between Tom Stoppard’s Travesties and The Thirty-Nine Steps … You can’t put it down. This is an astonishing debut and Daniel Birnbaum is clearly a talent to look out for’ The Jewish Chronicle ‘If you’re looking for a ridiculously brilliant story, you can stop looking … He’s got the world’s best story – he’s got Dr B’ Svenska Dagbladet ‘An astonishing thriller-novel … reminiscent of both Hjalmar Söderberg’s Doctor Glass as well as the dreamy melancholy in The Rings of Saturn by W.G Sebald’ Aftonbladet ‘A moving evocation of a life beset by conflicts in a troubled time’ Kirkus Reviews

När Daniel Birnbaum rensar i vindsutrymmet hemma hittar han en smutsbrun papplåda som det står hans farfars namn på. Inuti ligger en hel epok bevarad. Det visar sig handla om några av de av de mest spänningsfyllda åren i svensk nittonhundratalshistoria, 1939-1943. Det var då Stockholm blev ett centrum för världspolitiska krafter, hotellreceptionerna fylldes av hemlighetsfulla män och kvinnor med viktiga uppdrag och vardagslivet präglades av osäkerhet och rädsla. Plötsligt kunde vad som helst hända. Hösten 1939, efter att Tyskland invaderat Polen, anländer den tysk-judiska journalisten Immanuel Birnbaum till Stockholm. Han har tvingats fly med sin fru och sina två barn från Warszawa där han arbetat som korrespondent för några tyska tidningar. I Stockholm kommer han i kontakt med den tyska bokförläggaren Bermann Fischer och får jobb på det förlag som han driver i exil. Immanuels signatur är Dr. B. Han hjälper brittiska spioner med att sprida propaganda i Tyskland. Men i ett brev skrivet i osynligt bläck röjer han deras planer att spränga malmhamnen i Oxelösund för att tvinga in Sverige i kriget. Han försvinner in i fångenskap men dyker upp som en skugga i en novell av Stefan Zweig.Daniel Birnbaum har skrivit en roman om sin farfars märkliga upplevelser i Sverige under en kaotisk och skrämmande tid. Han framkallar skickligt och omsorgsfullt den atmosfär som råder i ett osäkrat Stockholm där varje felsteg kan kosta dig livet.

”Prins Eugen deltog. Och min vän Grünewald, trots att han är jude. Ändå är det idag som om utställningen aldrig ägt rum.” Året är 1942. Kriget rasar, men likväl ska Sverige medverka vid den komprometterade Venedigbiennalen och en svärmisk konsthistoriker får uppdraget att frakta de svenska bidragen till den beramade utställningen. Av en slump träffar han den gåtfulle tyske officeren Walter Schellenberg, som har oanade kopplingar till Sverige. Dörrar öppnas till ljusskygga sällskap, till historiens hemligheter.Daniel Birnbaum har skrivit en skarp kortroman av klassiskt snitt – om konst och makt, om blindhet och insikt – där verklighet och fantasi korsas på ett svindlande vis.

Canvases and Careers Today brings together contributions that relate to the same conference organized by the Institut für Kunstkritik, Frankfurt am Main. Its goal is to provide deeper insights and more complexity to current debates on the relationship between criticism, art, and the market. “It was especially interesting for us to watch a kind of transatlantic divide happening. While the US-American participants mostly declared criticism as obsolete while hoping for turning its weakness into a strength, most European participants departed from the opposite diagnosis: that criticism has never been as strong as it is today, since it is now part of a knowledge-based economy,” as expressed by the editors. It’s another important dialog between art and commerce and the old and new world. Contributions by George Baker, Johanna Burton, Merlin Carpenter, Melanie Gilligan, Tom Holert, Branden W. Joseph, John Kelsey, André Rottmann, Julia Voss, with an artistic contribution by Michael Krebber.