A witty yet moving narrative worked up from sketched biographical fragments, 1913 is an intimate vision of a world that is about to change forever. The stuffy conventions of the nineteenth century are receding into the past, and 1913 heralds a new age of unlimited possibility. Kafka falls in love, Louis Armstrong learns to play the trumpet, a young seamstress called Coco Chanel opens her first boutique, Charlie Chaplin signs his first movie contract, and new drugs like cocaine usher in an age of decadence.