Fantastic Night: Tales of Longing and Liberation

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Marc Notes: Translated from the German.; This collection is full of tales of infinite passions, of intense encounters that transform lives, a knock on a door that forces a whole community to take flight, a doomed attempt to save a soul poisoned by addiction, a love soured into awful cruelty, of longing and liberation. They are the gripping work of a master storyteller, unmatched and completely unforgettable. Biographical Note: Stefan Zweig was born in 1881 in Vienna, into a wealthy Austrian-Jewish family. He studied in Berlin and Vienna and was first known as a poet and translator, then as a biographer. Between the wars, Zweig was an international bestseller with a string of hugely popular novellas including Letter from an Unknown Woman, Amok and Fear. In 1934, with the rise of Nazism, he left Austria, and lived in London, Bath and New York-a period during which he produced his most celebrated works: his only novel, Beware of Pity, and his memoir, The World of Yesterday. He eventually settled in Brazil, where in 1942 he and his wife were found dead in an apparent double suicide. Much of his work is available from Pushkin Press. Review Quotes: 'One of the masters of the short story' -- Nicholas Lezard, Guardian 'Zweig belongs with those masters of the novella-Maupassant, Turgenev, Chekhov' -- Paul Bailey 'One of the joys of recent years is the translation into English of Stefan Zweig's stories. They have an astringency of outlook and a mastery of scale that I find enormously enjoyable' -- Edmund de Waal, author of The Hare with the Amber Eyes 'For far too long, our links with Zweig... have been broken. Pushkin Press's phenomenal, heartbreaking collection is a reminder that it's time to forge them again'-- Los Angeles Review of Books 'Zweig, prolific storyteller and embodiment of a vanished Mitteleuropa, seems to be back, and in a big way' -- New York TimesReview Quotes: "Zweig's impassioned pursuit of personal freedom seems more relevant than ever." "-- Newsweek" "One of the masters of the short story." "-- "Nicholas Lezard, "Guardian" "Zweig belongs with those masters of the novella-Maupassant, Turgenev, Chekhov." "-- "Paul Bailey "One of the joys of recent years is the translation into English of Stefan Zweig's stories. They have an astringency of outlook and a mastery of scale that I find enormously enjoyable." "-- "Edmund de Waal, author of "The Hare with the Amber Eyes" "For far too long, our links with Zweig... have been broken. Pushkin Press's phenomenal, heartbreaking collection is a reminder that it's time to forge them again." "-- Los Angeles Review of Books" "Zweig, prolific storyteller and embodiment of a vanished Mitteleuropa, seems to be back, and in a big way." --" New York Times"

Contributor Bio:  Zweig, Stefan Stefan Zweig (1881-1942) was an outstanding Austrian novelist, playwright, journalist, and biographer whose work became very popular in the US, South America, and Europe especially between the 1920s and 1930s. In 1904 he earned his doctorate degree in philosophy at the University of Vienna. Throughout his life he remained a pacifist, and instead of becoming a soldier at the start of World War I, he worked in the Archives of the Ministry of War. He became friends with notable people in history, including Romain Rolland, Sigmund Freud, and Arthur Schitzler. Among his most famous writings are Beware of Pity, Chess Story, and his memoir The World of Yesterday. Contributor Bio:  Bell, Anthea Oliver Potzsch, born in 1970, has worked for years as a scriptwriter for Bavarian television. He is a descendant of one of Bavaria's leading dynasties of executioners. Potzsch lives in Munich with his family.