Elias Canetti

Auto-da-Fé, Elias Canetti's only work of fiction, is a staggering achievement that puts him squarely in the ranks of major European writers such as Robert Musil and Hermann Broch. It is the story of Peter Kien, a scholarly recluse who lives among and for his great library. The destruction of Kien through the …

Providing a portrait of the author's personal background and creative development, this book presents the events, personalities and intellectual forces which shaped the growth of this artist as a young man. It covers his up-bringing in Bulgaria and later homes in Manchester, Vienna and Zurich. He was born in 1905 and …