Hans Magnus Enzensberger

A unique portrait of a revolutionary movement that is largely unknown outside Spain. Northern Spain is the only part of Western Europe where anarchism played a significant role in the political life of the twentieth century. Enjoying wide-ranging support among both the urban and rural working class, its importance peaked during its “brief summer”—the civil war between the Republic and...

One of Germany’s greatest living writers offers up an analysis (and samples) of his failed projects. “My dear fellow artists, whether writers, actors, painters, film-makers, singers, sculptors, or composers, why are you so reluctant to talk about your minor or major failures?” With that question, Hans Magnus Enzensberger—the most senior among Germany’s great writers—begins his amusing ruminations on his favourite...

Any new book by poet, essayist, writer, and translator Hans Magnus Enzensberger, one of the most influential and internationally renowned German intellectuals, is cause for notice, and Mr Zed's Reflections is no exception. Every afternoon for almost a year, a plump man named Mr Zed comes to the same spot in the city park and engages passers-by with quick-witted repartee....

Twelve-year-old Robert hates his maths teacher. He sets his class boring problems and won't let them use their calculators. Then in his dreams, Robert meets the Number Devil, who brings the subject of mathematics magically to life, illustrating with wit and charm a world in which numbers can amaze and fascinate. Here, maths is nothing like the dreary, difficult process...

The Federmanns live a pleasant but painfully normal life in the Munich suburbs. All that the three children really know about money is that there’s never enough of it in their family. Every so often, their impish Great-Aunt Fé descends on the city. After repeated cycles of boom and bust, profligacy and poverty, the grand old lady has become enormously...