# Destiny Express - Paperback

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by **Howard A. Rodman** (Author)

**Hailed by Thomas Pynchon as "daringly imagined and darkly romantic--a moral thriller," _Destiny Express_ captures both the glamour and the terror of an era, dramatizing the perilous moment when art, politics, and destiny converged on the tracks out of Berlin.**

Berlin, the last day of February, 1933. The Reichstag lies in smoldering ruins, a new world about to spring from its ashes. And now for German filmmakers the choices are stark: stay and collaborate with a government that believes in cinema's power to shape reality, or leave everything behind. _Destiny Express_ is the story of Fritz Lang and Thea von Harbou, husband and wife, director and screenwriter--together, they made some of the greatest films of all time: _M, Metropolis, Doctor Mabuse._ As each day is torn from the calendar they watch as one by one Bertolt Brecht, Max Ophuls, Billy Wilder, take the next train out. _Destiny Express_ follows Lang, von Harbou, and a host of real and fictional others--novelist-turned-minister-of-culture Joseph Goebbels, American café Surrealist Sam Harrison, Mercedes racing champ Otto Merz, film star Rudolf Klein-Rogge, a pair of not-so-secret police--as their paths converge, intertwine, and separate across the grid of Berlin, from the artificial daylight of the UFA soundstage to the artificial night of Berlin's most exclusive and decadent nightclubs.

Harsh lights, long shadows: the perfect setting for a deeply researched, deftly imagined tale, as one character puts it, of "crime, gambling, cocaine, jazz, stock exchange maneuvers, smuggling, hypnosis, counterfeiting, violence, Expressionism." _Destiny Express_ is the story of a marriage at the end of its passion, at the edge of history--all at the end of an era when film was to mean more than it ever would again.

### Author Biography

**Howard A. Rodman** is the author of the novels _Destiny Express_ and _The Great Eastern._ His work has appeared in _The New York Times, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Black Clock,_ and elsewhere. As a screenwriter his films include _Joe Gould's Secret_; _August_ with Josh Hartnett, Rip Torn, and David Bowie; and _Savage Grace_ with Julianne Moore and Eddie Redmayne. On television, he's written for _Fallen Angels_ and staffed on HBOMax's _The Idol_.

He's a vice president of the Academy for Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and a past president of the Writers Guild of America West.Rodman is one of seventeen members of the Screenwriters Hall of Fame, and was knighted by the Republic of France as an Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

As an academic, Rodman is professor and former chair of the division of screenwriting at USC; as a journalist, he's published hundreds of articles beginning with his tenure as editor-in-chief of the _Cornell Daily Sun_. In 2011 Rodman organized the nationwide Fantômas centennial, and remains on the steering committee of NOIRCON. Those who lived through the post-punk era in lower Manhattan may have seen him play guitar with the bands Arsenal and MADE IN USA. A proud son of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Rodman currently lives in Los Angeles.

**Number of Pages:** 192

**Dimensions:** 0.72 x 8.44 x 5.44 IN

**Publication Date:** May 19, 2026

## Details

- **Price:** 27.0 GBP
- **Vendor:** BooksCloud
- **Type:** Books
- **Tags:** 20th Century, Books, Cultural Heritage, Espionage, Fiction, Historical, Price Written on Book, Thrillers

## Variants

| Variant | Price | Available |
|---------|-------|-----------|
| Default Title | 27.00 GBP | In stock |

## Images

- Destiny Express

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> Updated: 2026-08-22