CLAUDIO MAGRIS, scholar and critic, was born in Trieste in 1939. After graduating from the University of Turin, he lectured there in German Language and Literature from 1970 to 1978. He holds a chair in Germanic Studies in the University of Trieste, and was for a period a member of the Italian parliament. He is the author of works of literary criticism and plays and has translated works by Isben, Kleist, and Schnitzler. He won international acclaim for his remarkable study of middle Europe, Danube. His novel, A Different Sea is also published by Harvill.

"A haunting amalgam of travelogue, autobiography and impressionist sketch book" -- Jonathan Keates Literary Review "Claudio Magris is engaged on a seductively exciting journey of the imagination, which enriches and enthrals" -- Eileen Battersby Irish Times "Microcosms, in its subtly magical blend of the public and the personal, of the inner voice and the voices without, of the cafe and of the study, of the hearth and of the world, is a unique and wonderful achievement" -- John Banville New York Review of Books