
Every Man for Himself and God Against All
A Memoir
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Werner Herzog
Legendary filmmaker and celebrated author Werner Herzog tells in his inimitable voice the story of his epic artistic career in a long-awaited memoir that is as inventive and daring as anything he has done before
Werner Herzog was born in September 1942 in Munich, Germany, at a turning point in the Second World War. Soon Germany would be defeated and a new world would have to be made out the rubble and horrors of the war. Fleeing the Allied bombing raids, Herzog’s mother took him and his older brother to a remote, rustic part of Bavaria where he would spend much of his childhood hungry, without running water, in deep poverty. It was there, as the new postwar order was emerging, that one of the most visionary filmmakers of the next seven decades was formed.
Until age 11, Herzog did not even know of the existence of cinema. His interest in films began at age 15, but since no one was willing to finance them, he worked the night shift as a welder in a steel factory. He started to travel on foot. He made his first phone call at age 17, and his first film in 1961 at age 19. The wildly productive working life that followed—spanning the seven continents and encompassing both documentary and fiction—was an adventure as grand and otherworldly as any depicted in his many classic films.
Every Man for Himself and God Against All is at once a personal record of one of the great and self-invented lives of our time, and a singular literary masterpiece that will enthrall fans old and new alike. In a hypnotic swirl of memory, Herzog untangles and relives his most important experiences and inspirations, telling his story for the first and only time.
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Critic reviews
"The book is nonlinear and exuberantly free-associative, less a narrative than an extravagant demonstration of sensibility . . . Like so many of his films, his memoir is not at home in its ostensible genre. A very thin thread of autobiography runs through an otherwise vibrant tapestry of anecdotes and adventures . . . His melancholic, meditative and theatrically nostalgic way of being is as irrepressible in his writing as it is in his films . . . I feel the same sense of awe when I contemplate the phenomenon of Werner Herzog as I do when I contemplate the pyramids. Amazing, that this fabulous impracticality exists.” —Becca Rothfeld, The Washington Post
“Written in that rich, dramatic speaking style . . . Every Man for Himself and God Against All is packed with memorable vignettes and tidbits of information . . . God also makes two appearances . . . But what He’s wearing is something only Herzog could dream up. So is every word in this entertaining and informative book.” —Odie Henderson, The Boston Globe
“Like his films (Fitzcarraldo, say, or Aguirre, the Wrath of God), Herzog’s memoir is a decidedly nontraditional piece of storytelling . . . The book is written in a literary voice that is outspoken and conversational . . . (The translation by Hofmann, who has also translated books by Wim Wenders and Franz Kafka, is delightful.) A fascinating portrait of an inventive and idiosyncratic filmmaker.” —Booklist
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Herzog is a legend and a treasure.
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Must read about life
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Nothing short of human
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Brilliant
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Incredibly German
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Werner is as unique as he is interesting.
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It feels criminal to live anything less than the full adventure, the full expression, of your own life.
Absolutely singular
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A truly amazing book
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Herzog at his best!
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Incredible tales breathily told
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