Bis man mir Scherben auf die Augen legt

Acclaimed as one of the most vivid and evocative autobiographies of the century, Manes Sperber’s trilogy All Our Yesterdays concludes in this final volume, whose narrative spans four decades - beginning in 1934 with his release from Nazi imprisonment in Berlin to his creative literary and political life in Paris, where he was a leading cultural figure until his death in 1984.

Psychologist, storyteller, and essayist, Sperber illuminates many events and ideologies that shattered Europe before and after the outbreak of World War II. Through the eyes of this eminent European intellectual and activist we witness the hostility between Croats and Serbs in Yugoslavia, the abortive workers’ uprising in Vienna, and Stalin’s show trials. We also see Sperber’s increasing disillusionment and eventual break with the Communist party.

Alongside first-hand accounts of those dark days in Europe, and his painful postwar visits to his former homes in Germany and Austria, Sperber includes intriguing portraits of numerous friends who include Raymond Aron, Alfred Doblin, Arthur Koestler, Andre Malraux, and Anna Seghers.