Montaigne's Tower. For Uwe Timm's 75th birthday, this compilation of texts was published, outlining the scope of his literary work. The spectrum is diverse, but the starting point is always his own life and interests. It discusses Montaigne's study in a tower that combines perspective and retreat, encounters with Wolfgang Koeppen in Munich, the question of national identity through Kafka's novel fragment 'America', the relationship between art and craft using Böll as an example, the question of whether writing can be learned, and repeatedly returns to Thomas Mann, particularly a renewed reading of his novel 'The Magic Mountain'.