The story of an extraordinary year - the international bestseller now in a handy paperback format! "I couldn't stop reading - Illies' stories are simply fantastic." Ferdinand von Schirach. Florian Illies virtuously unfolds a historical panorama of the year in which our present began: 1913. In literature, art, and music, extremes are pushed to the limit as if there were no tomorrow. Between Paris and Moscow, between London, Berlin, and Venice, we encounter countless artists whose creations permanently shaped our world. There is cocaine, drinking, etching, hatred, writing, painting, attraction, repulsion, love, and curses. It is a year in which everything seems possible. And yet, within this dazzling beginning lies the premonition of decline. Florian Illies brings this year, a moment of utmost flourishing and simultaneously a first flicker of downfall, to life.