Der Leviathan. Erzählung. - Softcover

Roth, Joseph

Softcover

ISBN 10: 346202082X ISBN 13: 9783462020823

Publisher: Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 1991

Synopsis

In the small town of Progrody, Nissen Piczenik makes his living as the most respected coral merchant of the region. Nissen has never been outside of his town, deep in the Russian interior, and fantasizes that a Leviathan watches over the coral reefs. When the sailor nephew of one of Progrody’s residents comes to visit, Nissen loses little time in befriending him for the purpose of learning about the sea. The sailor offers Nissen a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to come to Odessa and tour his ship. Nissen leaves his business during the peak coral season, and stays in Odessa for three weeks. But upon his return to Progrody, Nissen finds that a new coral merchant has moved into the neighboring town, and his coral is quickly becoming the most sought after. As his customers dwindle, life takes an evil twist for Nissen Piczenik. And the final decider of his fate may be the devil himself.

About this title

About the Author

Joseph Roth (1894-1939) was the great elegist of the cosmopolitan culture that flourished in the dying days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He published several books and articles before his untimely death at the age of 44. Roth’s writing has been admired by J. M. Coetzee, Jeffrey Eugenides, Elie Wiesel, and Nadine Gordimer, among many others.

For his translations, acclaimed poet Michael Hofmann has won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, the Dublin International IMPAC Award, the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Prize, the Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize, the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize, and The Schlegel-Tieck Prize (four times). He is the highly acclaimed translator of, among others, Kafka, Brecht, and Joseph Roth.

Review

“With the writings of Kafka and Robert Musil, Roth’s work constitutes Austria-Hungary’s finest contribution to early-twentieth-century fiction.”
- The New Yorker

“The Leviathan is expansive, lyrical in tone, folkloric in manner.”
- J. M. Coetzee, The New York Review of Books

“Joseph Roth was a cultural monument of Galician Jewry: ironic, compassionate, perfectly pitched to his catastrophic era.”
- Harold Bloom

Edition details

• Publisher: Kiepenheuer & Witsch
• Publication date: 1991
• Language: German
• ISBN 10: 346202082X
• ISBN 13: 9783462020823
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 231