Parting - Sebastian Haffner

Parting is a lighthearted yet melancholic love story of the last precious hours before exile, fascism and war.

The young legal trainee Raimund travels from Berlin to Paris to visit his girlfriend, the lively and free-spirited Teddy. It is the interwar period, a time when life still sparkles.

Together with Teddy's colorful entourage - the charming bon vivant Franz, the serious Mademoiselle Gault, the eccentric Mr. Andrews, and a motley crew of artists and lost souls - they roam through Parisian cafés and restaurants, celebrating their freedom, aware that nothing will stay as it is.

In this way a day and night full of lightness and longing unfold, with the inevitable farewell ever-present in their minds.

W&N Essential, translated by Michael Hofmann