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  • Published: 24 October 2023
  • ISBN: 9781847927248
  • Imprint: Bodley Head
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $55.00

Every Man for Himself and God against All

A Memoir




An exceptional memoir by the world-famous, pioneering filmmaker who directed the mutli-award-winning Grizzly Man

Werner Herzog is the undisputed master of extreme cinema: building an opera house in the middle of the jungle; walking from Munich to Paris in the dead of winter; descending into an active volcano; living in the wilderness among grizzly bears - he has always been intrigued by the extremes of human experience.

From his early movies to his later documentaries, he has made a career out of exploring the boundaries of human endurance: what we are capable of in exceptional circumstances and what these situations reveal about who we really are. But these are not just great cinematic themes. During the making of his films, Herzog pushed himself and others to the limits, often putting himself in life-threatening situations.

As a child in rural Bavaria, a single loaf of bread had to last his family all week. The hunger and deprivation he experienced during his early years perhaps explain his fascination with the limits of physical endurance.All his life, Herzog would embrace risk and danger, constantly looking for challenges and adventures.

Filled to the brim with memorable stories and poignant observations, Every Man for Himself and God against All unveils the influences and ideas that drive his creativity and have shaped his unique view of the world. This book tells, for the first time, the story of his extraordinary and fascinating life.

  • Published: 24 October 2023
  • ISBN: 9781847927248
  • Imprint: Bodley Head
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $55.00

About the author

Werner Herzog

Werner Herzog was born in Munich on September 5, 1942. He grew up in a
remote mountain village in Bavaria and studied History and German Literature in
Munich and Pittsburgh.
He made his first film in 1961 at the age of 19. Since then he has produced,
written, and directed more than fifty feature- and documentary films, such as
AGUIRRE, THE WRATH OF GOD (1972), NOSFERATU (1978),
FITZCARRALDO (1982), LESSONS OF DARKNESS (1992), LITTLE DIETER
NEEDS TO FLY (1997), MY BEST FIEND (1999), INVINCIBLE (2000),
GRIZZLY MAN (2005), ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD (2007)
or CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS (2011).
Werner Herzog has published more than a dozen books of prose, and directed
as many operas.
Werner Herzog lives in Munich and Los Angeles.

Also by Werner Herzog

See all

Praise for Every Man for Himself and God against All

Surely the strangest, strongest walking book I know, it tells the story of a winter pilgrimage, made in desperation and in hope. At once a diary, a blizzard of weather and memories, and the record of a ritual: only Herzog could have written this weird, slender classic

Robert Macfarlane, author of Underland

PRAISE FOR OF WALKING IN ICE Herzog's existential journey through a hostile winter landscape is one of the great modern pilgrimages - a record of physical suffering, of hallucination and ecstatic revelation, of portents and animals, of the wreckage of history and myth. Of Walking in Ice has the eerie power of the best fairytales. It hits you with the force of dreams and leaves you with the taste of snow-filled air

Helen MacDonald, author H is for Hawk

PRAISE FOR CONQUEST OF THE USELESS Hypnotic ... Any book by Mr. Herzog turns his devotees into cryptographers. It is ever tempting to try to fathom his restless spirit and his determination to challenge fate

Janet Maslin, New York Times

PRAISE FOR THE TWILIGHT WORLD Herzog's writing bristles with the same eerie and uncompromising energy as his films. His jungle pulses with hallucinatory life

Guardian

A potent, vaporous fever dream; a meditation on truth, lies, illusion and time

New York Times

PRAISE FOR EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF AND GOD AGAINST ALL Werner Herzog's life story reads like a Hollywood film

Daily Telegraph

[Every Man for Himself and God Against All is] an evocative, shocking encounter with a man who has experienced life at its most extreme

Daily Telegraph

A fascinating glimpse into the mind of an original, anarchic filmmaker. His family tales are weird and funny ... and he gives revealing accounts of his professional career and acting roles on hit shows such as The Simpsons and The Mandalorian

The Independent

This, his first (and only?) memoir might be as close as we'll ever get to the true story ... His life is full of incredible stories ... Now we have the chance to hear that singular poet's voice tell the story of his different kind of life

Big Issue

A personal record of one of the great self-invented lives of our time

SL.Man

A joyous, fulfilling read … there are some terrific, wild stories … [Herzog] has lived an extreme and extraordinary life

Observer

A bracing dive into the film-maker's darkly beguiling mind ... The glory of this book is that Herzog lets us see him making the world up. He writes throughout with enviable attention to the world around him [and] demands that we wonder at the tangible world, in all its mystery.

Guardian

[Herzog] really is a kind of genius

Spectator

Covers a wide span of captivating stories from Herzog's life

ArtReview

[Herzog's] new book is a hypnotic series of recollections and visions that you cannot help but read in that iconic voice ... It's a journey through the heart of Herzog, with Herzog at the wheel

Empire

Most film memoirs are boring because film-makers don't have a life outside film. But Herzog has lived the nine lives of a cat ... and his book actually gets more interesting the further it gets from the big films

Sunday Times *Book of the Week*

To read Every Man for Himself and God Against All … is to hear Herzog as loudly if he were three feet away … No ghostwriter could nail the tone like this. It is the autobiography only Werner Herzog could have written

Financial Times

Herzog’s memoir… is as intense, surprising and wacky as his films, with a real sense of reason underlying all the madness and eccentricity

New Statesman, *Books of the Year*

A visionary masterpiece

John Gray, New Statesman

Werner Herzog has always seemed to be something more than human. ... His memoir is a catalogue of risks .... images, anecdotes, fugitive brilliance, unquestionable bravery; surely, all these are enough?

Irish Times

Every Man for Himself and God Against All has the force of an epic poem in which Herzog is both author and subject

Times Literary Supplement

He is in a category of one. You can’t believe that a person likes this stalks the earth. A complete original

Marina Hyde