The untold story of a Paris correspondent for The New Yorker who sounded the alarm about the rise of fascism in Europe while becoming enmeshed in the case of a German serial killer on the eve of WWII.
Timely, immersive ... What a relief, after so many years of having this era defined by his lost generation of men, to come upon a different viewpoint — from a queer woman no less — of this charged time ... Braude excels at capturing the small details ... He is able to richly paint an era that strongly rhymes with our current moment ... Braude has delivered the prescient Flanner to us, nearly five decades after her death, at exactly the right moment.
An absorbing, expertly paced work of narrative nonfiction ... In the tradition of Erik Larson, who has published multiple bestsellers that set interpersonal dramas and true-crime accounts against the backdrop of great world events ... What sets Mr. Braude’s work apart from Mr. Larson’s—and what elevates it—is his interest in intellectual history.
Though the Weidmann connection is a little flimsy, it does serve to illustrate the professional challenge Flanner faced as her subject matter became inexorably darker.
