Rebellion

A novel from the author of The Radetzky March, "e;considered by many to be one of the most important Jewish voices in German literature written between the two wars"e; (The Forward). From Joseph Roth, an allegorical yet decidedly modern novelist, comes this story of postwar disillusion, the limits of faith, and "e;personal fate as governed by the blind, casual workings of a machine controlled by no one and for which no one is responsible"e; (The New York Times). When Andreas Pum returns from World War I, he has lost a leg but gained a medal. But unlike his fellow sufferers, Pum maintains his unswerving faith in God, Government, and Authority. Ironically, after a dispute, Pum is imprisoned as a rebel, and all that he believed in is now thrown into upheaval. Moving along at a breakneck clip, Rebellion captures the cynicism and upheavals of a postwar society. Its jazz-like cadences mix with social commentary to create a wise parable about justice and society. "e;Roth's tale has that very European, straightforward, fairy-tale logic that makes everything both inevitable yet strangely nightmarish. You wouldn't be far wrong to think of Roth as occupying the fourth corner of a square whose other apices are Kafka, Musil, and Stefan Zweig."e; The Guardian"e;A brilliantly allegorical writer . . . Rebellion is reminiscent of Chekhov in its uncluttered, melancholy simplicity, while its sense of the larger, crushing incomprehensibility of things echoes Roth's older contemporary, Frank Kafka."e; Richard Bernstein, The New York Times"e; Rebellion puts the last piece of the Roth puzzle in place, leaving readers the gratifying task of exploring the manifold dimensions of this marvelous writer."e; The Boston Globe