Peter Kien is a distinguished yet reclusive Sinologist living in Germany between the wars. Expelled from his home he roams the dark streets, guided by a sinister chess-playing dwarf. Published on the eve of WWII by a Jewish writer with a sense of impending doom, this is a dark but fantastically lucid novel, worthy of the effort it demands.
A series of short sketches from the Nobel Prize winning author Elias Canetti in a smart new edition by Penguin. Powerful and evocative, these are acute observations on the culture, language and people of Marrakesh.