The Dead (German: Die Toten) is a 2016 gothic novel by the Swiss writer Christian Kracht, his fifth novel when it was released. It is set in the film industry at the end of the Weimar era and tells the story of a (fictional) Swiss director, Emil Nägeli, and a Japanese government official (Masahiko Amakasu) who try to create a collaboration between German and Japanese cinema. The plot centers around the May 15 Incident. The narrative is structured like a Noh play with three acts. The language is inspired by the works of Thomas Mann, with many archaic words and expressions. As in all historiographic metafiction, there are historic characters acting out of time and character – one of the protagonists is a highly unsympathetic Charlie Chaplin, while there are longer appearances by Lotte Eisner, Ernst Hanfstaengel, Siegfried Kracauer and Fritz Lang. In telling the story of cinema’s development from silent to sound film, the novel considers the issue of "performance" – both in terms of individual identity and the social norms that represent the background to the performing of this identity. Source: Wikipedia (en)