The Travelling Library

  • Books touch us, connect us, and sometimes they even save lives. They are light in dark times.
  • This is real history: a mobile library truly operated out of a tram.
  • For everyone who loves Carsten Henn's "The Book Walker" or Jojo Moyes.
  • Thomas Montasser is translated into Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese, English, French, Italian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Turkish



English sample translation available

A great secret love. And the power of imagination.

Vera and Hans meet in the white and blue tram that journeys through Munich as a travelling library - and fall in love. But as a “half-Jew,” Vera must now, in 1937, do everything she can to avoid attracting attention. The same goes for Hans, a socialist. The two hide coded messages for each other in the books of ostracized authors. Thomas Mann, Kästner, Tucholsky: as library books, they become a secret means of survival for Vera and Hans. Until Hans stops coming to the travelling library...

Today: In an old tram car, restorer Sophie comes across faded library cards - and discovers the secret code of a great love.

Reading as a means of survival: a celebration of books and moral courage.


"[Montasser] has a unique knack for drawing his readers into a story, told in a light-hearted and affectionate style" - Kulturvision, Monika Ziegler

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  • Publisher: FISCHER
  • Release: 29.04.2026
  • ISBN: 978-3-7587-0005-7
  • 272 Pages
  • Author: Thomas Montasser
Buchcover von The Travelling Library: Roman
Thomas Montasser The Travelling Library
Portrait von Thomas Montasser
© Mariam Montasser
Thomas Montasser

In The Travelling Library , Thomas Montasser draws on motifs and events from his own family history. During the Third Reich, his grandmothers were a maid for a Jewish family and a waitress in one of Hitler's favorite restaurants, respectively, while his grandfathers were a socialist and a communist - and both railroad workers. Thomas Montasser is an author, literary agent, and lecturer in book studies at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. His works have been translated into numerous languages and have appeared on bestseller lists in several countries.