في هاتين القصتين، يرسم زفايغ بلغة الفن أثر الحرب حتى في من لم يشارك فيها، من خلال شخصيتين فريتين كلتاهما حبيسة عالم خاص بها وحدها.

تليها "المجموعة الخفية", حيث تتجلى براعة زفايغ في تصوير العوالم النفسية المعقدة.

Luces de Bohemia es una obra maestra escrita por Ramón del Valle-Inclán en 1920, que inauguró un nuevo género teatral conocido como el esperpento. La historia sigue al poeta ciego Max Estrella y su amigo Latino, mientras recorren el sórdido Madrid en una serie de eventos exagerados y grotescos que transcurren a lo largo de dos días.

Ambientada en un "Madrid absurdo, brillante y hambriento", esta obra es un comentario mordaz sobre la España de la Restauración, vista a través de una lente sistemáticamente deformada. El protagonista, Max, simboliza una mirada más lúcida, a pesar de su ceguera, y su viaje revela las injusticias y opresiones de su tiempo.

Valle-Inclán utiliza el esperpento para diseccionar la realidad de su época, presentando a España como una "deformación grotesca de la civilización europea". A través de imágenes distorsionadas y personajes arquetípicos, como el bohemio y anarquista Max, inspirado en el poeta modernista Alejandro Sawa, la obra explora las dificultades y grandezas del estilo de vida bohemio.

Minor Detail begins during the summer of 1949, one year after the war that the Palestinians mourn as the Nakba – the catastrophe that led to the displacement and expulsion of more than 700,000 people – and the Israelis celebrate as the War of Independence.

Israeli soldiers capture and rape a young Palestinian woman, and kill and bury her in the sand. Many years later, a woman in Ramallah becomes fascinated to the point of obsession with this ‘minor detail’ of history. A haunting meditation on war, violence, and memory, Minor Detail cuts to the heart of the Palestinian experience of dispossession, life under occupation, and the persistent difficulty of piecing together a narrative in the face of ongoing erasure and disempowerment.

An unruly bunch of bright, funny sixth-form boys in pursuit of sex, sport, and a place at university. A maverick English teacher at odds with the young and shrewd supply teacher. A headmaster obsessed with results; a history teacher who thinks he's a fool.

In Alan Bennett's classic play, staff room rivalry and the anarchy of adolescence provoke insistent questions about history and how you teach it; about education and its purpose.

The History Boys premiered at the National in May 2004.

A Legacy of Madness is the story of a loving family coming to grips with its own fragilities. It relays the author's journey to uncover, and ultimately understand, the history of mental illness that led generations of his suburban American family to their demise.

Dede Davis had worried, fussed, and obsessed for the last time. Her heart stopped beating in a fit of anxiety. In the wake of his mother's death, Tom Davis knew one thing: Helplessly self-absorbed and severely obsessive-compulsive, Dede led a tormented life. She spent years bouncing around mental health facilities, nursing homes, and assisted-living facilities, but what really caused her death?

A Legacy of Madness portrays Tom Davis's captivating discoveries of mental illness throughout generations of his family. Investigating his mother's history led to that of Davis's grandfather, a top administrator at one of the largest psychiatric hospitals in the country; his great-grandfather who died of self-inflicted gas asphyxiation during the Depression; and his great-great-grandmother who, with her eldest son, completed suicide one tragic day.

Ultimately, four generations of family members showed clear signs of depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and alcoholism—often mistreated illnesses that test one's ability to cope.

Through this intimate memoir, we join Davis on a personal odyssey to ensure that he and his siblings, the fifth generation, recover their family legacy by not only surviving their own mental health disorders but by getting the help they need to lead healthy, balanced lives. In the end, we witness Davis's powerful transition as he makes peace with the past and heals through forgiveness and compassion for his family—and himself.

The Education of Henry Adams records the struggle of Bostonian Henry Adams (1838-1918), in early old age, to come to terms with the dawning 20th century, so different from the world of his youth. It is also a sharp critique of 19th-century educational theory and practice.

Adams explores the incredible events of the 19th century, meditating on his sense of disorientation with the scientific and technological expansion over his lifetime. He reflects on the political and social challenges of the late nineteenth century, rooted in the collapse of traditional values, expectations, and ideals.

The narrative is an extended meditation on the social, technological, political, and intellectual changes that occurred over Adams's lifetime. He concluded that his traditional education failed to help him come to terms with these rapid changes, hence his need for self-education. The book is narrated in the third person and is frequently sarcastic and humorously self-critical.

This autobiography stands as a thoughtful, humane, often tender exploration of himself and a brilliant history of a changing country. Henry Adams gives us a prescient view of the century ahead, contrasting the Romantic ideals of his ancestors with the chaotic world of the future.

Istanbul: Memories and the City is a shimmering evocation, by turns intimate and panoramic, of one of the world’s great cities, by its foremost writer, Orhan Pamuk. Born in Istanbul, Pamuk still resides in the family apartment building where his mother first held him in her arms.

His portrait of his city is also a self-portrait, refracted by memory and the melancholy—or hüzün—that all Istanbullus share: the sadness that comes from living amid the ruins of a lost empire.

With cinematic fluidity, Pamuk moves from his glamorous, unhappy parents to the gorgeous, decrepit mansions overlooking the Bosphorus; from the dawning of his self-consciousness to the writers and painters—both Turkish and foreign—who would shape his consciousness of his city.

Like Joyce’s Dublin and Borges’ Buenos Aires, Pamuk’s Istanbul is a triumphant encounter of place and sensibility, beautifully written and immensely moving.

Solar Storms by Pulitzer Prize finalist Linda Hogan tells the moving story of Angela Jenson, a troubled Native American girl coming of age in the foster system in Oklahoma, who decides to reunite with her family.

At seventeen, Angela returns to the place where she was raised—a stunning island town that lies at the border of Canada and Minnesota. Here, she discovers that an eager developer is planning a hydroelectric dam that will leave sacred land flooded and abandoned.

Joining forces with three other concerned residents, Angela fights the project, reconnecting with her ancestral roots as she does so. This harrowing, lyrical, and boldly incisive novel is a powerful examination of the clashes between cultures and the traumatic repercussions that have shaped American history.

La Mort est mon métier presents the pseudo-memoirs of Rudolf Höß (renamed Rudolf Lang in the book), the notorious commandant of the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp during World War II.

The story begins in 1913 when Rudolf Lang is just 13 years old. Raised in a misunderstood and highly normative Catholic environment, Rudolf's father, a merchant and military man, pressures him to become a priest to atone for his own past sins. Rudolf initially believes in God until a pivotal incident shatters his faith, leading to a strained relationship with his father.

As World War I erupts, a young Lang embarks on a military career, experiencing the harsh realities of war. After the war, he faces unemployment and family rejection, almost leading to suicide. Instead, he joins the Nazi party, eventually rising through the ranks to become the commandant of Auschwitz.

Under the orders of Reichsführer Himmler, Lang is tasked with the grim duty of exterminating 500,000 individuals annually. The camp evolves into a death factory, and Lang becomes a key figure in the Holocaust, overseeing the murder of millions.

Throughout the book, Lang is portrayed as devoid of personal feelings, driven solely by orders from his superiors. Even after the war, when imprisoned and sentenced to death, he claims he was merely following orders. The narrative concludes with Lang feeling betrayed by Himmler, who avoided accountability through suicide, leaving Lang to shoulder the blame.

This chilling tale offers a stark look into the mind of a man who played a pivotal role in one of history's darkest chapters, highlighting the psychological complexities and moral voids within.