Gold

The heavily indebted Basel cloth merchant Johann August Suter sets off from Burgdorf to New York in 1834. The dream of the New World drives him further west, where he reaches his destination in the Sacramento Valley and founds the colony of New Helvetia. He buys land and makes it arable, builds roads, bridges, and wells, and engages in large-scale agriculture and livestock farming. Soon, he owns half of California. But – as quickly as it was gained, it was lost! When gold is discovered on his land, a gold rush erupts like never seen before: tens of thousands of adventurers swarm in and devastate his lands, and the workers abandon him. The "Father of California" is stripped of his entire territory.

In a fast-paced, driving language, Blaise Cendrars' first, now world-famous novel tells the story of the rise and fall of the American pioneer Suter, who, it is said, owes his existence to San Francisco. The ruthless depiction of an obsessive possession, followed by a chaotic downfall – triggered by a lump of precious metal – brings the frenzied intoxication of the promise of wealth to life and makes the book, first published in 1925, a timeless piece of literature.