Danube
(Book)

Includes index.

Translation of: Danubio.

In this acclaimed international bestseller, Claudio Magris tracks the course of the Danube, 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 whose curiosity is 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 Seas. In each town he raises the ghosts that inhabit the houses and monuments, from Ovid and Marcus Aurelius to Kafka and Elias 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.