In the sweltering summer of 1933, the political situation in Europe—and that of the Mann family—is reaching a critical point: Thomas and Katia Mann and their six children, after adventurous escapes, are stranded in the idyllic port town of Sanary on the French Mediterranean coast in June. And now they are all at a loss. One place, one family, three months in 30-degree heat—'When the Sun Sets' is a grand family portrait: Hardly arrived in their uncertain exile in the South of France, Thomas Mann actually wants to return immediately to his elegant Munich villa. His brother Heinrich, on the other hand, revels in the freedom of the South. Caught in the middle are Thomas and Katia's six children: Michael plays the violin day and night, Klaus founds an exile magazine, Elisabeth swims and enjoys her time off school. Erika, the eldest, takes charge and smuggles the Manns' belongings from Munich across the border, Golo withdraws money from the accounts and cares for the forgotten dog. And Monika? She simply stays lying on the beach in Sanary. Florian Illies tells of the grief over the loss of their homeland and possessions, the fear of Nazi looting, of defiance and passion. Of melancholy and the will to survive, even as the old world threatens to collapse. And he tells of the great rift between Klaus and Erika and their father, Thomas. "I believe," said Marcel Reich-Ranicki, "that in 20th-century Germany there was no more significant, original, and interesting family than the Manns." In Sanary, this extraordinary family is in a state of absolute emergency—for the first time, they are all forced to make a declaration. To each other. To Germany. Or, as sad as it is: Against it. biography Florian Illies, born in 1971 in Schlitz near Fulda. Until December 2002, he headed the feuilleton section of the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung" and before that, the Berlin pages of the "FAZ". He is currently a freelance writer in Berlin. In 1999, he was awarded the "Ernst Robert Curtius Prize for Essay Writing" and in 2014 the "Ludwig Börne Prize". New product