Uncover great writers' secrets!
Each great work of literature holds mysteries and secrets, often finding the key to unravel them where the lives of the authors intersect with their writing.
In twelve masterful portraits, from Hans Christian Andersen to Jorge Luis Borges, Michael Maar uncovers these delicate points, revealing unexpected and sometimes amusing revelations, as well as internal tensions and abysses. What did it mean for these writers, all driven individuals, when, as Kafka enigmatically said, "leopards break into the temple and drink from the sacrificial jars"? To discover how closely Thomas Mann danced with the devil, why Marcel Proust rejected New Year's gifts, why Virginia Woolf was influenced by two moons, and why Nabokov's Lolita wears boys' clothing, as well as what caused Kafka's beetles to perish and the connection between Robert Musil and the venomous dwarf Canetti.
Welcome to a journey through world literature filled with subtle irony and surprising insights!
"Michael Maar's incredibly easy-to-read essays contain the entire weight of world literature." Süddeutsche Zeitung
