Synopses & Reviews
Rob Spillman, the award-winning, charismatic cofounding editor of the legendary Tin House magazine, has devoted his life to the rebellious pursuit of artistic authenticity. Born in Germany to two driven musicians, his childhood was spent among the West Berlin cognoscenti, in a city two hundred miles behind the Iron Curtain. There, the Berlin Wall stood as a stark reminder of the split between East and West, between suppressed dreams and freedom of expression.
After an unsettled youth moving between divorced parents in disparate cities, Spillman would eventually find his way into the literary world of New York City, only to abandon it to return to Berlin just months after the wall came down. Twenty-five and newly married, Spillman and his wife, the writer Elissa Schappell, moved to the anarchic streets of East Berlin in search of the bohemian lifestyle of their idols. But within Spillman’s constant striving—for beauty, for inspiration, and for identity—he soon discovered he was chasing the one thing that had always eluded him: a place, or person, to call home.
In his intimate, entertaining, and heartfelt memoir, All Tomorrow’s Parties, Spillman narrates a colorful, literary, and music-filled coming-of-age portrait of an artist's life that is also a cultural exploration of a shifting Berlin.
Review
“Rob Spillman's story of rarefied opera culture as a child, and East German nightlife an adult, is limpid and lively in its telling, and it covers fascinating ground. Spillman is endearing and frank in his various adventures in a way that kept reminding me of Griffin Dunne in the movie After Hours, except instead of winding up in Club Berlin, he finds himself in the real one.” Rachel Kushner, author of The Flamethrowers
Review
“[A] lively debut....Musically and culturally astute, this well-structured book is a delightful coming-of-age story couched within a travel narrative that deftly evokes one of the major historical moments of the 20th century. A richly detailed and always engaging memoir on artistic discovery." Kirkus (starred review)
Review
“Part survivor’s manual, part travelogue, part cultural history, it’s a story of an arts-mad, idealistic, brave young man struggling to make his way—and find a place in the world...Spillman unspools a story that will resonate with everyone who‘s ever searched for home.” Michael Hainey, author of After Visiting Friends
About the Author
Rob Spillman is editor of Tin House magazine and editorial adviser for Tin House Books, and was recently awarded the PEN/Nora Magid Award for Editing. His writing has appeared in Boston Review, GQ, the New York Times Book Review, Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated, Vogue, andWorth, among others. He was previously the monthly book columnist for Details magazine and is a contributor of book reviews and essays to Salon and Bookforum. He has also worked for Random House, Vanity Fair, and the New Yorker. He is currently a lecturer in Columbia University's MFA graduate writing program.