Endless Flight: The Genius and Tragedy of Joseph Roth

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The acclaimed first English-language biography of the great European novelist and journalist, Joseph Roth, author of The Radetzky March, a writer who captured life in Europe between the wars like no other.

The mercurial, self-mythologising novelist and journalist Joseph Roth, author of the 20th-century masterpiece The Radetzky March, was the finest observer and chronicler of his age. Endless Flight travels with Roth from his childhood in the town of Brody on the eastern edge of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to an unsettled life spent roaming Europe between the wars, including spells in Vienna, Paris and Berlin. His decline mirrored the collapse of civilised Europe: in his last peripatetic decade, he opposed Nazism in exile from Germany, his wife succumbed to schizophrenia and he died an alcoholic on the eve of WWII.

Exploring the role of Roth's absent father in his imaginings, his attitude to his Jewishness and his restless search for home, Keiron Pim's gripping account of Roth's chaotic life speaks powerfully to us in our era of uncertainty, refugee crises and rising ethno-nationalism. Published as Roth's works rapidly gain new readers and recognition, Endless Flight delivers a visceral yet sensitive portrait of his quest for belonging, and a riveting understanding of the brilliance and beauty of his work.

Reviews

Fascinating, sophisticated, meticulous: this biography of Joseph Roth catches his cosmopolitan spirit, turbulent nature and literary genius amidst the melancholy of a darkening age -- Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of Stalin the court of the red tsar
Utterly engrossing. Endless Flight is a biography of deep humanity, one that captures the individual, the place and the times with acute and affecting brilliance. I loved it -- Philippe Sands
A novelist of genius, an anti-nationalist prophet in the wilderness, a human being capable of the monstrous: Endless Flight does humane and painstaking justice to all these aspects, and more, of Joseph Roth's short, utterly compelling life. Anyone who reckons The Radetzky March one of the supreme twentieth-century novels will devour Keiron Pim's biography avariciously -- David Kynaston
A superb biography - fascinating, shrewd, insightful. Finally, Joseph Roth's extraordinary life is recounted for his multitude of English readers in compelling detail... Enthralling -- William Boyd
It's incredible that it's taken this long for an English-language biography of Joseph Roth to appear-and incredibly fortunate that Keiron Pim has been the one to do it, evoking with compassion and depth the work and the world of one of the greatest of modern writers -- Benjamin Moser
A remarkable and penetrating study of Roth's life and times. Today, even more of the world finds itself in endless flight. As such, this beautiful, timely and critically important book introduces English readers to an indispensable guide both to Roth's past and to our present -- Devorah Baum
Pim has told this vital and singular story with the deft tenacity and the passionate flexibility of attitude and tone that it requires, and his book is a mighty achievement -- Patrick Mackie
Kieron Pim combines admirably lucid prose with exhaustive research and a great affection for his subject... A thoughtful, absorbing and assured account of a great author's complex, rootless and ultimately tragic life... [Endless Flight is] an indispensable guide to [Roth's] life and work, and essential reading for admirers and newcomers. -- David Collard

Author Bio

Keiron Pim is the author of critically acclaimed Jumpin' Jack Flash: David Litvinoff and the Rock'n'Roll Underworld which was longlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize and shortlisted in the Wales Book of the Year Awards' category for Creative Non-Fiction. He has written articles for the Guardian, the Daily Telegraph and the Spectator. Alongside his writing, Pim works as a proofreader, an editor and a mentor to aspiring non-fiction authors. He lives in Norwich with his wife and three daughters.