The book of photos and texts is dedicated to the Thomas Mann House in Pacific Palisades in Los
Angeles. Francis Nenik's essay offers the first detailed description of the history of the
house in which Thomas Mann lived with his family from 1942 to 1952 during his period of exile
in the U.S. Basing his work on extensive archival research Nenik not only recounts episodes
from the family's life but also introduces characters who have hitherto been largely
unknown-the people who built the house and worked in it. Their experiences some of them
extremely colourful create the panorama against which the story of the house unfolds.
Sebastian Stumpf's photographs act as a counterpoint to this. In January 2017 he gained access
to the vacant property which had recently been bought by the German government and captured
it in its inbetween state in a series of distinctive pictures. They show a deserted house that
has morphed and grown in on itself leaving precious little to suggest that the Mann family had
once lived there. Francis Nenik lives with his daughter in Leipzig and in a rural area of
Saxony where he is experimenting with life as a smallholder. He also writes prose. Sebastian
Stumpf (b. 1980) artist lives in Leipzig. In 2016 2017 he was a fellow at the Villa Aurora in
Los Angeles.
