The Weather in Berlin — Ward Just

A New York Times Notable Book: “An elegantly written, strikingly intelligent novel” about wrestling with the past and the future in a reunified Germany (Newsday).

Shot in Germany in the late 1960s, Dix Greenwood's first film, Summer, 1921, is revered as an antiwar classic. Thirty years later and after more than a decade of silence, Dix returns to Berlin on a residency that he hopes will rekindle his genius. He encounters a newly reunited Germany, full of promise yet mired in the past -- much like Dix himself. To this day, he is haunted by the mystery of Jana Sorb, the actress who disappeared during the making of Summer, 1921 and has long since been presumed dead.
 
When Jana suddenly reappears in Dix's life, it sets off a cascade of recollections and realizations that will forever change the way he approaches his art . . . and his life. In this tale of Americans abroad, National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize finalist Ward Just turns his keen eye toward the dark underpinnings of nationalism, fame, and artistic integrity, in “an elegantly written, strikingly intelligent novel, as knowing about movies, the German enigma, and the vagaries of fame as it is about matters of the heart” (Newsday).
 
“Ward Just writes the kind of books they say no one writes anymore: smart, well-crafted narratives -- wise to the ways of the world -- that use fiction to show us how we live.” -- Los Angeles Times
 
“Every so often, a well-established, respected novelist vaults to a new level, demonstrating a mastery of craft that startles even his fans. That's what Ward Just has done in . . . ‘The Weather in Berlin.'” -- Newsweek