Life as a dance – Steffen Schroeder's captivating novel about the beautiful and scandalous artist Anita Berber.
Summer 1928: Anita Berber lies weakened in a Berlin hospital. Once a star who embodied the new era on stage and in countless films, she lived and loved extravagantly – until a scandal in Vienna revealed a dark future. Anita reflects on her beloved grandmother Lu, who raised her, her path to divine dance, the great Fritz Lang, and the ambitious yet less talented Leni Riefenstahl. As friends like Otto Dix, who painted her, visit, Anita searches for the crucial misstep on her journey. She aimed to elevate dance to an art form and a celebration of life, but others only saw scandal. Her thoughts also revolve around her great lost love and her father, Felix Berber, the famous violinist – whom she has missed all her life. After World War I, everything solid seems to waver, and the world is both unexpectedly free and dangerous.
Steffen Schroeder tells the captivating story of Anita Berber's life, capturing the essence of an era marked by self-determination, immense freedom, and risk – a compelling panorama with a fiery heroine.
