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Benjamin's Crossing

By Jay Parini
Series: Canons
0.0 (0 reviews)
3.65 goodreads logo

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Check link for latest rating. ( 147 ratings, 29 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Benjamin's Crossing follows the final days of Walter Benjamin, a brilliant 20th-century thinker fleeing Nazi persecution. Jay Parini retraces Benjamin's journey from Berlin's intellectual salons to his tragic death on the Franco-Spanish border, weaving history, escape, and a poignant love story into a vivid narrative.
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

Ideal for readers interested in historical fiction, 20th-century European history, philosophical biography, and profound tales of escape and human resilience during the Holocaust.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

A powerful and moving novel recounting the life and death of Walter Benjamin from the award-winning author.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

There is no such thing as history, you see. It's a dream, perhaps even a dream of a dream...

Walter Benjamin is dead. One of the most radiant minds of the twentieth century has been snatched away by death in a small town on the border between Spain and France. His thousand-page manuscript, carried the length of France during his flight from the Nazis, has vanished with him, never to be recovered.

Jay Parini's extraordinary work traces Benjamin's steps back through time, from the salons of Berlin to the winding roads of Catalonia. A tale of escape and pursuit, Benjamin's Crossing dramatises one of the most moving peripheral episodes of the Holocaust; and above all, it is a love story.

Series: Canons

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Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Praised as a piercing, magnificent novel by Amos Oz and a poignant and eloquent portrayal by Harold Bloom, the book is noted for its thrilling adventure and dark-age emblematic narrative (Gore Vidal). Reviews highlight its compelling imagination and meticulous research, capturing Benjamin as a vividly alive, though tragically out-of-touch intellectual (The Sunday Times, New York Times Book Review, Times Literary Supplement).

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781786892850

Publisher: Canongate Books

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 05 August 2021

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Canongate Canons

Edition: Main - Canons

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 26.0mm

Width: 129.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 287g

Pages: 432

Collections

Fiction General Fiction Historical Fiction Jay Parini Series: Canons

About the Author

Jay Parini has written eight novels, including The Apprentice Lover, The Passages of Herman Melville and The Last Station, which was made into an Academy Award-nominated film starring Helen Mirren and Christopher Plummer. His most recent volume of poetry is New and Collected Poems: 1975-2015. He has written biographies of John Steinbeck, Robert Frost, William Faulkner and Gore Vidal. Other works include Borges and Me: An Encounter and Promised Land: Thirteen Books that Changed America.

jayparini.com

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