Kino: A Novel
by Jürgen Fauth
Fiction/Literary Thriller, Trade Paperback Original
ISBN 978-0-9832080-7-5
5.25 x 8 in/248 pages
Publication Date: April 17, 2012
Kino is the tragic story of a silent film director in Nazi Germany and his modern day granddaughter’s quest to redeem him. When the long lost, first-ever silent film from legendary director Kino arrives mysteriously on his granddaughter Mina’s doorstep, Mina’s mission to discover the man she barely knew begins.
As Kino’s journals plunge the reader into the depraved glamour and infectious panic of 1920s and 30s Germany, with a cast of characters including Joseph Goebbels, Fritz Lang and Leni Riefenstahl, Mina finds her mission may be more dangerous than she’d imagined.
A quick-moving page turner, Kino raises the questions concerning any artist working today: What is true art? How do art and politics shape one another? And at what cost to his identity, family and sanity should an artist pursue his vision?
Praise for Kino
“Kino is a fast, complex, exhilarating roadster ride through history and time. It is the story of a woman who becomes obsessed with her grandfather, a visionary film director, [and] the powerful bindings of family, the sweet, dark loam of loss, and the high-voltage current of pulp fascism. Kino is an intoxicating Euro-brew, written with enormous skill and dedication.”
– Frederick Barthelme, author of Elroy Nights
“Jürgen Fauth’s deft mashup of genre and historical period is both a full-throttle literary thriller of ideas and a contemplative examination of film and fascism. Kino is a debut of great intellectual force.”
– Teddy Wayne, author of Kapitoil
“A delirious melange of conspiracy, magic, sex, history, bad behavior, and cinema, Kino is a stellar entertainment, and Jürgen Fauth is a writer of rare, sinister imagination.”
– Owen King, author of Reenactment
“While art may cause mental anguish and distress, ultimately it brings to light the true nature of our existence. That is the brilliance of art, and that is the brilliance of Kino.”
– Trip Starkey, The Literary Man
About the Author
Jürgen Fauth is a writer, film critic, translator, and co-founder of the literary community Fictionaut. He was born in Wiesbaden, Germany, and received his doctorate from the Center for Writers at the University of Southern Mississippi. He lives with his wife, writer Marcy Dermansky, and their daughter Nina. Kino is his first novel. Follow him on Twitter at @muckster.