Thomas Mann and his family, including his mother, wife, siblings, and children, spent a significant part of their lives in Bavaria. However, their relationship with their surroundings was fraught with tension, marked by both attraction and aversion. The sisters despaired, the Nobel laureate achieved fame and honor in Munich, but had to emigrate in 1933, while his children Klaus and Erika fled early into the world. This biography tells the exciting, varied, and eventful story of the Manns, this peculiar family.