Inside the Head of Bruno Schulz: (Pushkin Collection)

'It is now certain that the false Thomas Mann must be an agent of the Secret State Police', wrote Bruno, after he had opened his notebook again, laid it neatly on the table, and bent over it like a cat with its back arched, 'and I suspect he will not leave our town until we have all lost our wits'.

Bruno Schulz has foreseen catastrophe and is almost paralysed by fear. His last chance of survival is to leave the home town to which, despite being in his late forties, he clings as if to a comforting blanket. So he retreats into his cellar (and sometimes hides under his desk) to write a letter to Thomas Mann: appealing to the literary giant to help him find a foreign publisher, in order that the reasons to leave Drohobych will finally outweigh the reasons to stay. Evoking Bulgakov and Singer, Biller takes us on an astounding, burlesque journey into Schulz's world, which vacillates between shining dreams and unbearable nightmares - a world which, like Schulz's own stories, prophesies the apocalyptic events to come. Includes two stories by Bruno Schulz: Birds and The Cinnamon Shops from The Street of Crocodiles.

About the Author :
Maxim Biller (b. Prague, 1960) is the author of several novels, plays and collections of short stories, whose work has been compared to that of Philip Roth and Woody Allen. He is also a columnist and literary critic at the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung and Die Zeit.

Review :
Fans of Schulz's work will be particularly interested, but anyone can appreciate the way that Biller's voice eases seamlessly into the mind of Schulz, making for a superb read Publishers Weekly An unceasing pleasure Jewish Quarterly Curious unsettling novella which one can and for maximum effect perhaps should, read in a single setting London Magazine A powerful piece of fiction... highly recommended Booktrust A work as complex, as beautiful and as straightforward as a fibre-optic network, each little luminous thread separate but when bundled together capable of carrying immense amounts of information...perfect as an introduction to Biller and Schulz... Biller has given us a tiny and total work of art The National Post Biller's story confirms the talismanic qualities of Schulz's work and life, and his ongoing capability to motivate others to create strange new things The Canadian Jewish News A linguistic work of art, which shows the stylist Maxim Biller at his creative height Hamburger Abendblatt Biller writes with a matter-of-fact, unobtrusive elegance which is unmatched by any other German writer of his generation. His novella has attained the level of world literature Spiegel Online Iridescently told Berliner Zeitung The perfect invitation to read Schulz... Biller's small novella is a great Kaddish Die Zeit Airy, bold, Mozart-like... a brilliant novella Suddeutsche Zeitung Cold, dark, magnificent Welt am Sonntag Praise for Bruno Schulz: "One of the most remarkable writers who ever lived" - Isaac Bashevis Singer; "Sometimes there are such moments of grace: you open a book by an author you don't know, and suddenly you feel yourself passing through a magnetic field that sends you in a new direction, setting off eddies that you'd barely sensed before and could not name. I read Schulz's stories and felt the gush of life." - David Grossman; "One of the most original imaginations in Europe" Cynthia Ozick Praise for The Street of Crocodiles: "A book I've always loved... a masterpiece" - Jonathan Safran Foer; "A rich stew of metaphysical mischief and meditations" - Michel Faber; "Rich in fantasy, sensuous in their apprehension of the living world, elegant in style, witty, underpinned by a mystical but coherent idealistic aesthetic... unique and startling" -- J. M Coetzee