{"product_id":"destiny-express-paperback","title":"Destiny Express - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eHoward A. Rodman\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eHailed by Thomas Pynchon as \"daringly imagined and darkly romantic--a moral thriller,\" \u003ci\u003eDestiny Express\u003c\/i\u003e captures both the glamour and the terror of an era, dramatizing the perilous moment when art, politics, and destiny converged on the tracks out of Berlin.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBerlin, the last day of February, 1933. The Reichstag lies in smoldering ruins, a new world about to spring from its ashes. And now for German filmmakers the choices are stark: stay and collaborate with a government that believes in cinema's power to shape reality, or leave everything behind. \u003ci\u003eDestiny Express\u003c\/i\u003e is the story of Fritz Lang and Thea von Harbou, husband and wife, director and screenwriter--together, they made some of the greatest films of all time: \u003ci\u003eM, Metropolis, Doctor Mabuse.\u003c\/i\u003e As each day is torn from the calendar they watch as one by one Bertolt Brecht, Max Ophuls, Billy Wilder, take the next train out. \u003ci\u003eDestiny Express \u003c\/i\u003efollows Lang, von Harbou, and a host of real and fictional others--novelist-turned-minister-of-culture Joseph Goebbels, American café Surrealist Sam Harrison, Mercedes racing champ Otto Merz, film star Rudolf Klein-Rogge, a pair of not-so-secret police--as their paths converge, intertwine, and separate across the grid of Berlin, from the artificial daylight of the UFA soundstage to the artificial night of Berlin's most exclusive and decadent nightclubs. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Harsh lights, long shadows: the perfect setting for a deeply researched, deftly imagined tale, as one character puts it, of \"crime, gambling, cocaine, jazz, stock exchange maneuvers, smuggling, hypnosis, counterfeiting, violence, Expressionism.\" \u003ci\u003eDestiny Express\u003c\/i\u003e is the story of a marriage at the end of its passion, at the edge of history--all at the end of an era when film was to mean more than it ever would again.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eHoward A. Rodman\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of the novels \u003ci\u003eDestiny Express\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Great Eastern.\u003c\/i\u003e His work has appeared in \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Black Clock, \u003c\/i\u003eand elsewhere. As a screenwriter his films include \u003ci\u003eJoe Gould's Secret\u003c\/i\u003e; \u003ci\u003eAugust\u003c\/i\u003e with Josh Hartnett, Rip Torn, and David Bowie; and \u003ci\u003eSavage Grace \u003c\/i\u003ewith Julianne Moore and Eddie Redmayne. On television, he's written for \u003ci\u003eFallen Angels\u003c\/i\u003e and staffed on HBOMax's \u003ci\u003eThe Idol\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e He's a vice president of the Academy for Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and a past president of the Writers Guild of America West.Rodman is one of seventeen members of the Screenwriters Hall of Fame, and was knighted by the Republic of France as an Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e As an academic, Rodman is professor and former chair of the division of screenwriting at USC; as a journalist, he's published hundreds of articles beginning with his tenure as editor-in-chief of the \u003ci\u003eCornell Daily Sun\u003c\/i\u003e. In 2011 Rodman organized the nationwide Fantômas centennial, and remains on the steering committee of NOIRCON. Those who lived through the post-punk era in lower Manhattan may have seen him play guitar with the bands Arsenal and MADE IN USA. A proud son of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Rodman currently lives in Los Angeles.\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 192\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.72 x 8.44 x 5.44 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e May 19, 2026\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44760035393671,"sku":"9781644285534","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0601\/2623\/2711\/files\/p7-cjUqFba9781644285534.webp?v=1780264114","url":"https:\/\/booksby.splitshops.com\/products\/destiny-express-paperback","provider":"Books by splitShops","version":"1.0","type":"link"}