The masterpiece “Heimurin, ið var” (The World of Yesterday) has been labelled the longest suicide note in the history of literature. The book was conceived while Zweig was fleeing from Nazism far away from his beloved Vienna. First, he fled to England, then to Brazil.

In February 1942, he sent the manuscript to his publisher, and the following day he took his own life together with his wife. He could not accept life as a refugee, let alone witness the collapse of peace and civilisation that Europe once stood for.

But despite the melancholy seeping through, the book is also a warm tribute to humanism, the arts, and the liberal Europe, which, for him, was the epitome of all culture and civilisation.

Though it is based on his own life story and artistic development, the book is first and foremost the memoirs of a European. A young man, who at the beginning of the 20th century absorbs all that is Europe, is captivated by art and literature and everything that the great cities of Europe had to offer in a time when everyone still believed, that the only way was forward, and that the strong culture would be an enduring shield against all indignity and scorn.

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The book was reviewed in Bókahornið (KVF 22 September 2017)

Heimurin ið var - og er (The World of Yesterday - and Today)
Knút Olsen has translated Stefan Zweig into Faroese. We discuss the importance of Stefan Zweig today together with a literary scholar and the translator.

Listen to the book review here

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