The Curse of Joseph Roth

The greatest novel about World War I was written by a self-fabulating, alcoholic Jew who loved the Habsburg empire. Joseph Roth, author of The Radetzky March, had a flair like nobody else for large-scale lying. Roth spent his days and nights in the cafés of Paris and Berlin, where he wrote, drank, smoked, and traded witticisms with fellow emigrés. His wife went mad and he lost hope, but he kept on writing.