"Can a work of art ever truly be washed clean of the hands that funded it? Is it possible to create a masterpiece in the shadow of a monster? Today, we are exploring these haunting questions through the lens of The Director—the latest novel by the brilliant German author Daniel Kehlmann and translated into English by Ross Benjamin. Set against the harrowing backdrop of the late 1930s and 1940s, the story follows the legendary film director G.W. Pabst as he returns to Nazi-occupied Austria.