It is hard for me to imagine a more perfect novella, or a novella that takes more advantage of its economy and delivers everything you want: spare, surgical prose, a rapid and satisfying plot, an infinite mirror-palace of images and symbols upon which to meditate.

I picked this up by chance in Rizzoli's in New York (one of many books in our annual New York bookshopping-cum-cocktailing spree), and I am excited to find more of Zweig's work.

★★★★★