When seventeen-year-old Franz leaves his rural home to take a job as a Viennese tobacconist's apprentice, his initial homesickness soon fades amidst the fascinations of the city. Among the shop's regular customers is a Professor Freud, whose predilection for cigars and occasional willingness to dispense romantic advice will forge a bond between him and young Franz.It is 1937. In a matter of months, Germany will annex Austria and the storm that has been threatening to engulf the little tobacconist will descend, leaving the lives of Franz, his boss and Professor Freud entirely changed . . .Told with the same delicacy and restraint that marked his acclaimed A Whole Life, Robert Seethaler's The Tobacconist a deeply moving story of ordinary lives profoundly affected by the Third Reich.