September 1940, Walter Benjamin is part of a small group fleeing from the Gestapo, trying to sneak across the border from France into Franco’s Spain. When the Nazis invaded France, Benjamin knew he had to get out of Paris. He first went to Marseille where he obtained a visa that would allow him to go through Spain to Lisbon and thence to the USA. While Walter Benjamin lugs a heavy suitcase along mountain paths, he talks to his travelling companions, remembering some of the most important periods of his life as a thinker, critic and translator: his childhood, lovers, friends – Ernst Bolch, Hannah Arendt and many others – his stay in Ibiza in 1932 and the Nazi labour camps.
At a time when people are becoming increasingly interested in philosophy, this novel recreates that last three days of Walter Benjamin’s life – his flight to the Pyrenees, his stay in Portbou where he was arrested by the Spanish police, and his death.
The novel is currently being made into a film due to start production in mid-2017 under the auspices of Mallerich Films Paco Poch, S.L., directed by Jordi Cadena and starring Àlex Brendemühl.
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