"Both Mann and Hesse were charged with energy. Mann, the resident of cities (particularly his beloved Munich) poured his uncertainty and his corrosive insights into his great first novel, Buddenbrooks, which was published in 1901 and sold an astonishing one million copies. the bourgeois writer had exposed most of the fault lines in bourgeois society, not only in germany, but in most of europe. at twenty-six, he was famous, proclaimed by many as a coming master of the literary twentieth century. hesse had solidified his literary reputation with Siddharta and Steppenwolf. one of their most attentive readers was thomas Mann.". the best of the letters present us with two fundamentally decent, sophisticated men grieving for the ruined world.

in the 1930s and 1940s, they rail against the stupidity of war and the cowardice of diplomats, against the social savagery of the nazis, against the blind forces of abstraction and nationalism.they brood about the fate of germany and of europe after the last shots have been fired. they have lived through a time of extraordinary horror and yet they have not surrendered to despair or nihilism. Reading the letters, I feel like some privileged guest in a special room, sitting off to the side somewhere, listening while these men talk. a fire burns in a fireplace. through the windows i can see snow falling against a dark sky. we are in the country of exile. neither man has given up hope.

art will prevail, they insist. civilization will prevail. Music will drive off the explosive rumble of artillery. Life will defeat death. Listen to them: they are speaking truth. Nothing else matters.".