F. Scott Fitzgerald, Lothar Kittstein

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel immerses us in the New York of the Roaring Twenties, a world of breathless amusements built above a shaky foundation, where fear and desperation hide just below the dazzling surface. In a society where only wealth and status count—a society, in which all real values have been lost—a man like Jay Gatsby, whose real name is James Gatz and who is bound to his one true beloved, must necessarily be destroyed. It’s no surprise that The Great Gatsby has become one of the most important novels of the 20th century: it is a portent of a world that is adrift and running dry, where everything is sacrificed to the idol of money.

Here, Lothar Kittstein has adapted the material for the present day. And it is truly relevant: an attractive young man falls in love with a dazzling it-girl, but doesn’t have the financial means to marry her and gets involved with some shady business endeavors in an attempt to win her back. Out of necessity, of course, because the society in which he lives isn’t as permeable as it portrays itself as being. Only in the most rare cases do the bus boys turn into millionaires by legal means—this isn’t any different today than it was in the Roaring Twenties. And a man who doesn’t have anything more than a pretty face, intelligence, burning ambition, and powerful feelings for a girl outside of his league is just doomed to failure in today’s merciless world.