Wandering Jew

Joseph Roth, best known as the author of the novel The Radetzky March and the nonfiction work The Wandering Jews, was one of the most seductive, disturbing, and enigmatic writers of the twentieth century. Born in 1894 in the Habsburg Empire in what is now Ukraine and dying in Paris in 1939, he was a perpetually displaced person, a traveler, a prophet, a compulsive liar, and a man who covered his tracks. Throughout the eastern borderlands of Europe, Dennis Marks explores the spiritual geography of a still-neglected master and uncovers the truth about Roth’s lost world."This is history at its most vivid." —The Times (London)

"A brilliant little study." —Simon Schama, Financial Times

"In Wandering Jew, a fascinating exploration of Roth’s Galician origins, Dennis Marks describes Roth as ‘one of literature’s most prodigious liars.’" —The GuardianDennis Marks (1948–2015) was an acclaimed television producer and broadcast executive, writing and presenting historical documentaries for BBC Radio, including three series on European history. From 1993 to 1997 he was General Director of the English National Opera. His search for Joseph Roth grew out of Faultline, his acclaimed BBC Radio 3 series on the Habsburg Empire.