- Published: 19 November 2024
- ISBN: 9781529923865
- Imprint: Vintage
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 368
- RRP: $24.99
Every Man for Himself and God against All
A Memoir

















- Published: 19 November 2024
- ISBN: 9781529923865
- Imprint: Vintage
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 368
- RRP: $24.99
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
Laden with eye-opening anecdotes…Everyman for Himself…is not your usual memoir. But then Herzog is not your usual director. Just like his work, he plays with form here, teasing the disparate and extreme strands of his life
Observer