"Full of admiration, enthusiasm and deep knowledge, Kehlmann introduces us to the books of the man who was born in Prague in 1882, studied in Vienna, wrote in coffee houses and earned his living in the same insurance company as Franz Kafka. Leo Perutz was an important representative of both the great Eastern European Jewish narrative tradition and Viennese modernism. His masterpiece is the novel "Nachts unter der steinernen Brücke".

Kehlmann impressively describes the deep traces Perutz left behind in his own work. And shares with us his astonishment that this man is not one of the most famous novelists of his language today. This book could change that." (Publisher)