A 1942 memoir in a 2025 world
Re-reading "The World of Yesterday"
Sometimes, unusual and extreme events mark the separation between old and new ways of thinking.
In the early weeks of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Berlin-based journalist Elizabeth Zerofsky remarked that the moment reminded her of The World of Yesterday, the haunting memoir written Stefan Zweig as World War II raged on. In it, the Austrian novelist recalls the twilight of the Austro-Hungarian Empire with an almost naïve fondness.
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