bookswelike

Books by Stefan Zweig

The Post Office Girl

Christine lives in financial and emotional poverty in post WW I Austria. A rich aunt takes her to Switzerland where she temporarily experiences extreme wealth and freedom. She is transformed but then is suddenly returned to her former empty existence. She meets Ferdinand whose life has also been ruined by the war. There seems no hope for them so they consider suicide but take another route. Beautifully written but could be shorter perhaps.
(Christine Miller - bwl 53 September 2009)

The World of Yesterday

A memoir to treasure. A wonderful evocation by one of Austria's and Europe's finest writers of a lost world of the Austro-Hungarian Empire destroyed in the Great War. Zweig is the essence of the best in European culture. He knew all the great writers of his day about whom he recalls with eloquence. His world was to be destroyed by the Nazis and his exiled wanderings were to end tragically. To read this book is to feel human.
(David Graham - bwl 55 Winter 2011)