"The books, the boy and the night": Kai Meyer brings the 1930s to life - my book recommendation

Created: 12/22/2022, 10:41 am

By: Sven Trautwein

With his novels, Kai Meyer takes us into a world of books.

The current book is a journey through time to the 1930s.

My book tip.

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This changes nothing for you.

Many people have known about the Leipzig Book Fair for years.

Unlike the Frankfurter, she turns to the reading public.

In Kai Meyer's "The Books, the Boy and the Night" we as readers embark on a journey through time to Leipzig in the 1930s.

With the Graphic Quarter, the center of book printing at that time.

Around 1900, more than 2000 companies were based there that were active around the book.

And here begins the journey in search of a missing book.

Kai Meyer "The books, the boy and the night": About the book

Kai Meyer "The books, the boy and the night" © Knaur

Dense fog billows through the streets of the book city of Leipzig in 1933, when evil seizes power.

Here the tragic love of the bookbinder Jakob Steinfeld for a mysterious young woman unfolds.

Juli has written a book that she only wants to entrust to him.

But soon after, she disappears without a trace.

Almost forty years later, Jakob's son Robert is also addicted to books and travels all over Europe in search of rare editions.

He loves his work and books – he usually keeps his distance from people.

But when the librarian Marie asks him to help her with a job for the mysterious Pallandt publishing family, they stumble upon the mystery of a book whose story is closely linked to Robert's own - it is the key to his parents' fate.

blurb Knaur

Kai Meyer has published more than 70 books to date.

Also in "The Trail of Books" (promotional link) and "The Pact of Books" (promotional link) an antiquarian bookshop and a specific book play an important role.

This is also the case in his latest historical novel, which begins in 1943 with a heavy mood.

A boy tries to escape the hail of bombs on Leipzig.

An unknown adult helps him.

But before that he is supposed to risk his life for an important book for his savior.

Only then do they manage to escape from Leipzig.

The book is S. Morena's The Alphabet of Sleep (a fictional book for novel suspense) that runs like a thread through the entire story.

As readers, we follow the boy in different epochs, as he stumbles over old machinations and books again forty years after fleeing.

time does not forget.

The novel is atmospherically dense, with well-interspersed facts about the Graphic Quarter in Leipzig, the historic book district that was largely destroyed in World War II.

With "The Books, the Boy and the Night" Kai Meyer creates an all-round hit that is not only a must for all lovers of literature.

As a reader, I was drawn deep into the story, I was rooted for it and couldn't get enough of the characters.

A brilliant journey through time.

Kai Meyer "The books, the boy and the night": My conclusion

Kai Meyer skilfully packs everything between two book covers: contemporary history in the 1930s, interesting facts about book printing in Leipzig with its graphic district at the time, and a love story.

If you want to have fun and have fun, this is the book for you.

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Kai Meyer "The books, the boy and the night"

2022 Droemer-Knaur, ISBN-13 978-3-426-22784-8

Price: hardcover €22, e-book €17.99, 496 pages (deviating from the format)

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Kai Meyer

Kai Meyer's more than seventy novels ended up in large numbers on the bestseller lists.

Translations appear in thirty languages.

His stories have been adapted into films, radio plays and graphic novels and have received awards at home and abroad.