German word of the week: Zweieinsamkeit, “graced-filled dual solitude.”

I got this from The Orientalist by Tom Reiss (Random House). It’s the biography of Lev Nussimbaum, a refugee, writer, and imposter–a Jew who became a best-selling author in Nazi Germany. He was the scion of an oil-rich family from Azerbaijan who lost their wealth in the Russian Revolution. They fled to Germany where Nussimbaum later took on the garb of a Muslim prince, calling himself “Essad Bey” and “Kurban Said,” and wrote novels and non-fictional adventure books set in the Caucasia, all while he dodged the Nazi pogrom. He later somehow ended up under Mussolini’s wing. The book ties together Jewish, Caucasian, Russian, German, and Italian history in an interesting manner and also explores the theme of Nussibaum’s–and the West’s–fascination with “the Orient.” I’ve just skimmed through a bit of it, and the account of German post-WWI chaos and Weimar art and decadence is very interesting.