Blaise Cendrars

With this biographical novel, German-speaking readers have a unique opportunity to get to know Blaise Cendrars: His daughter, Miriam Cendrars, has compiled the story of her father's turbulent life and literary work into a comprehensive biography based on her memories and numerous unpublished documents. The author vividly describes the various stages of Blaise Cendrars' life and his extraordinary way of transforming his experiences, encounters, and adventures into captivating literature, filled with exciting details. Accompanying the adventurer Blaise Cendrars on his life's journey becomes an adventure for the reader as well: Cendrars as a jeweler's apprentice in Tsarist Russia just before the revolution, Cendrars traveling in Siberia and China, Cendrars as a young poet among the Parisian bohemians before World War I, Cendrars and his women, Cendrars as a war volunteer in the French trenches where he lost his right arm, Cendrars traveling in South America, Cendrars in World War II as a correspondent for English media, and Cendrars in the 1950s: famous and lonely. In her fascinating work, which is also an exciting document about half a century of tumultuous history in Europe and other continents, the author not only portrays her father's extraordinary life but also allows him to speak extensively for himself. At crucial points, she repeatedly incorporates quotes—prose and poetry—from Cendrars' works. With this technique, she has also created a reader that places Blaise Cendrars' literature in the context of its time and origins.