Danube

Neither a travel book, nor an extensive prose poem, nor history, nor philosophy, nor a journey of discovery, but often all of these at once.

With an introduction by Richard Flanagan.

In this fascinating journey, Claudio Magris, whose knowledge is encyclopedic and whose curiosity is boundless, leads his readers from the source of the Danube in the Bavarian hills through Austria-Hungary and the Balkans to the Black Sea. Along the way, he awakens the spirits that inhabit the houses and monuments – from Ovid to Kafka to Canetti – capturing the pulse of Central Europe, the vital melting pot of a culture that unites influences from East and West, from Christianity and Islam.