El alumno aventajado

"The Outstanding Student" brings together three small masterpieces by Joseph Roth, with a prologue by Friderike Zweig. “Under the influence of alcohol he was a cheerful and optimistic man, capable of completing the most brilliant and precise tasks, and thus he filled page after page with his beautiful and firm handwriting. He almost always worked on the terraces of cafes, and never got impatient when one of his friends, who were many and from the most varied nations, races, and social strata, dropped by to interrupt him. He had lived in Berlin for several years, but when Hitler took over the German chancellery, Roth left the city for good to live a life in Parisian cafes that emulated that of Verlaine". This is how Friderike Zweig presents her friend Joseph Roth in the text that prologues this edition, made up of three gems by the writer born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire: "The Outstanding Student", "Barbara" and one of his best-known and most read works, "The legend of the holy drinker". Roth is an essential writer to whom is always a pleasure to return to.