A beguiling fable about a summer holiday in the Swedish countryside that transforms into a
provocative parable about oppression and the evil awaiting Europe as the Nazis came to power.
Castle Gripsholm the best and most beloved work by Kurt Tucholsky is a short novel about an
enchanted summer holiday. It begins with an assignment: Tucholsky's publisher wants him to
write something light and funny otherwise about whatever Tucholsky wants. A deal is struck and
the story is off: about Peter a writer his girlfriend known as the Princess and a summer
vacation far from the hurly-burly of Berlin. Peter and the Princess have rented a small house
attached to a historic castle in Sweden and they have five weeks of long days and white nights
at their disposal five weeks for swimming and walking and sex and talking and visits with
Peter's buddy Karlchen and with Billie the Princess's best friend. It is perfect until they
meet a weeping girl fleeing the cruel headmistress of a home for children. The vacationers
decide they must free the girl and send her back to her mother in Switzerland which brings
about an encounter with authority that casts a worrying shadow over their radiant summer idyll.
Soon they must return to Germany. What kind of fairy tale are they living in?
