The best possible holiday read (Irish Times 2013-07-20)A hugely enjoyable idiosyncratic month by month narrative, in which the frenzy of artistic activity in London, Paris, Vienna, Berlin, and Trieste is conveyed with vigour and humour (Daily Telegraph 2013-06-08)A vivid, richly textured book that chronicles a world crackling with talent, energy and foreboding (FT 2013-07-20)A brilliant game of original quotations and tracings (Der Spiegel 2012-10-22)Illies shapes his material not as a scholar, but as a wordsmith, as a story-teller with a strong sense for dramatic effect and composition...the most enjoyable book I've read in years (Die Welt 2012-10-26)Illies makes the hundred years between 1913 and his readers disappear. A beautiful book. (Süddeutsche Zeitung 2012-10-25)Illies is as astute a researcher as he is an observer of the zeitgeist ... reads like something out of a magic realist novel. (Philip Oltermann Guardian 2013-07-20)I couldn't stop reading - Illies' stories are simply magnificent (Ferdinand von Schirach)Thorough and fascinating (Time Out 2013-07-09)An absolute gem of a book. His snapshot approach to the year, recorded month by month, is the most original historical account I've come across ... Illies's genius turn of phrase, beautifully retained by Shaun Whiteside and Jamie Lee Searle's elegant translation, can be found throughout ... The entries read like history's footnotes, but as anyone who's read Freud knows, the footnotes always tell the best story. (Lucy Scholes Observer 2013-07-21)