Fiesta bajo las bombas

Elias Canetti exiled himself to the United Kingdom in 1939 with his wife, Veza, both of Jewish origin, to escape the Nazi yoke. They lived through World War II in London and the countryside, where they were evacuated when German bombings hit the city. During these war years, Canetti met a wide range of figures, including T.S. Eliot, Iris Murdoch, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Herbert Read, Veronica Wedgwood, Oskar Kokoschka, and Bertrand Russell. Fiesta bajo las bombas captures Canetti's years in post-war London. Written in the 1990s, this book follows the trajectory of his earlier memoirs, The Tongue Set Free, The Torch in My Ear, and The Play of Eyes. Although Canetti passed away before it could be published, his daughter completed the edition years later. The book offers a portrait of Canetti's life in exile, through a sharp and satirical depiction of 1940s London and its cultural scene, all seen through the eyes of someone who feels they don't fit into the new society they inhabit. Intellectuals, writers, politicians, millionaires, ordinary people, friends, and lovers populate these pages in a dazzling gallery of characters evoked through Canetti's incisive perspective.