Claudio Magris

Claudio Magris's searing new novel ruthlessly confronts the human obsession with war and its savagery in every age and every country. His tale centers on a man whose maniacal devotion to the creation of a Museum of War involves both a horrible secret and the hope of redemption. Luisa Brooks, his museum's curator, a descendant of victims of Jewish exile and of black slavery, has a complex dilemma: will the collections she exhibits save humanity from repeating its tragic and violent past? Or might the display of articles of war actually valorize and memorialize evil atrocities? In Blameless Magris affirms his mastery of the novel form, interweaving multiple themes and traveling deftly through history. With a multitude of stories, the author investigates individual sorrow, the societal burden of justice aborted, and the ways in which memory and historical evidence are sabotaged or sometimes salvaged.

A writer for whom the journey has always mattered reinvents the very form itself in this inviting collection of in-the-moment impressions of his journeys.

Die Reise des namenlosen Helden beginnt im Kaffeehaus und endet nebenan im Stadtpark. Aber dazwischen liegt eine ganze Welt. Neun Ausflüge führen in die Wirklichkeit, in die Fantasie und in die Gefühlswelt. Seine Geschichte setzt sich aus den vielen Schicksalen zusammen, die sich mit seinem Schicksal kreuzen. Es sind komische oder tragische Schicksale obskurer oder illustrer Menschen.