Description

‘One of the greatest writers of the first half of the tormented 20th century’ – Simon Schama

‘An almost perfect book’ Rolling Stone

At the close of the Great War, a captured Austrian soldier escapes Siberia and sets off in search of his fiancee, her photograph sewn into the lining of his coat. But the old order has vanished, and he is swept along on the current of revolution: first surrendering to his love for a Red Army beauty, then drifting phantom-like through Europe’s cities.

Here Joseph Roth tells one of his most personal stories – that of a man cast adrift in a changed world.

Part of the Pushkin Press Classics series: timeless storytelling by icons of literature, hand-picked from around the globe.

Translated by David Le Vay and Beatrice Musgrave.

JOSEPH ROTH (1894-1939) was born into a Jewish family in the small town of Brody in the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. He studied first in Lemberg and then in Vienna, and served in the Austrian army during World War I. He later worked as a journalist in Vienna and Berlin, travelling widely, staying in hotels and living out of suitcases, while also becoming a prolific writer of fiction. Roth left Germany when Hitler came to power in 1933 and settled in Paris, where he died just before the outbreak of World War II. As well as his masterpiece The Radetzky March, he was the author of over two dozen works of fiction and non-fiction, including On the End of the World, The Coral Merchant and Weights and Measures, all published by or forthcoming from Pushkin Press.

DAVID LE VAY (1915-2001) was a consultant surgeon in the NHS for over thirty years. Combining his medical work with a literary career, he authored medical textbooks and biographies of prominent historical surgeons, as well as translating works from French, German, Spanish and Latin.

Publisher Review

'A very fine writer indeed' - Guardian 'A master of German prose... Roth understood the subtler acts of violence that war enacts upon the mind' - Spectator 'A concise, powerful writer who brilliantly evokes the social, political and intellectual turmoil of the era' - Publisher's Weekly 'One of the greatest writers of the first half of the tormented 20th century' - Simon Schama