Danube: A Sentimental Journey from the Source to the Black Sea Spiral-Bound | October 28, 2008

In this acclaimed international bestseller, Claudio Magris tracks the course of the Danube from its sources to the sea, setting his finger on the pulse of Central Europe, the crucible of a culture that draws on influences of East and West, of Christianity and Islam. Magris, whose knowledge is encyclopedic and curiosity limitless, guides the reader along the course of the river, from its source in the Bavarian hills through Austro-Hungary and the Balkans to the Black Sea. In each town he raises the ghosts that inhabit the houses and monuments, from Ovid and Marcus Aurelius to Kafka and Canetti. The Danube is the great artery of that elusive territory known as Mitteleuropa, from which so many of the most fascinating people and ideas of European history have emerged, and Magris has produced a wonderful celebration of it in "a fascinating blend of anecdote and history" (San Francisco Examiner), a true classic of twentieth-century literature.