Destiny Express

by Howard A. Rodman

Genres: Cultural Heritage; World War II; Spy Thrillers

Synopsis

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, 1933. The Reichstag smolders in ruins, and a new order is rising from the ashes. For filmmakers like Fritz Lang and Thea von Harbou—the legendary team behind Metropolis and Dr. Mabuse—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 a daringly imagined, darkly romantic tale that blurs the line between history and fiction. Howard A. Rodman conjures a city in crisis and a culture at the crossroads, where artists, ministers, starlets, spies, and surrealists collide in the shadow of encroaching fascism. From the dazzling lights of the UFA soundstage to the smoky intrigue of Berlin’s nightclubs, Rodman evokes a world of crime, jazz, cocaine, betrayal, and invention—when film meant more than it ever would again.

Release date: May 19, 2026

Publisher: Rare Bird Books

Print pages: 224