Volker Weidermann has written literary history with 'Ostend' - his brilliantly narrated book about writers in exile has become a modern classic that captivates new readers - in Germany and all over the world. In the summer of 1936, writers who no longer had a home in Nazi Germany met in the Belgian seaside resort of Ostend. Stefan Zweig arrives with his lover Lotte and the typewriter, Joseph Roth comes to take a vacation and write despite the ban on schnapps. He falls in love one last time: with Irmgard Keun, who just wanted to get away from the land of book burners. Volker Weidermann writes with historical precision and narrative ease about writers at a turning point, he interweaves biography and history, life and art. His book is a literary event: it inspires critics, finds hundreds of thousands of readers, is translated into twenty languages, leads to a boom in books by Keun, Roth and Zweig and establishes a new form of writing about literature. Volker Weidermann's books are now published in KiWi paperback - 'Ostend' is the glamorous prelude. Biography Volker Weidermann, born in Darmstadt in 1969, studied political science and German language and literature in Heidelberg and Berlin. He is literary editor and features editor of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung and lives in Berlin. With light years. A Brief History of German Literature from 1945 to the Present Day, he celebrated a phenomenal success with the public in the spring of 2006 and triggered a passionate debate in the arts pages.