This week’s episode of “Books du Jour,” continues our mission to share literature from around the world. George Prochnik, “The Impossible Exile, Stefan Zweig at the End of the World,” portraits the last years of Stefan Zweig’s, once one of the most celebrated authors in the 30’s, exile from Austria, after Hitler took power. George Prochnik looks into the Zweig’s disintegration and growing disillusion with humanity as he struggles in NY and Brazil.
Boris Fishman, “The Replacement Life” looks back at WWII and how it continues to shape the life of people, in this case, ex-URSS immigrants, in our present. A young writer agrees to write letters on behalf of older holocaust survivors to apply for financial retribution from the German government. Of course the stories are not always true, and our hero is forced to face his own moral integrity.
Antonin Baudry, “Weapons of Mass Diplomacy” takes a close look at the world of French diplomacy, viewed through the eyes of an assistant speechwriter. Although filled with wise quotes from the Greek philosopher Heraticlus, this engaging graphic novel depicts in fact a world of insanity, where big egos clash with the constant maelstrom of last minute world crisis. Even the speeches suffer from an endless state of anxiety.
