Description: The Nobel Prize winner Elias Canetti all his life declared himself a "mortal enemy" of death--and here, in English at last, is his landmark book on the subject
Brief description: Elias Canetti was born in 1905 into a Sephardi Jewish family in Ruse, Bulgaria. He moved to Vienna in 1924, where he became involved in literary circles while studying for a degree in chemistry. He remained in Vienna until the Anschluss, when he emigrated to England and later to Switzerland, where he died in 1994. In 1981, Canetti was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for "writings marked by a broad outlook, a wealth of ideas, and artistic power." His best-known works include his trilogy of memoirs The Tongue Set Free, The Torch in My Ear, The Play of the Eyes, and The Party in the Blitz; the novel Auto-da-Fé; and the nonfiction book CrowdsandPower.
Review Quotes: An extraordinary performance of magical thinking that stems not just from profound grief but from obdurate ethical principle ... Canetti's enduring commitment to a hopeless cause energizes this unusual, and unusually stirring, work.--Sam Sacks "Wall Street Journal"