Three Escapes of Hannah Arendt

''A genre-breaking insight into one of the greatest thinkers of the 20th century'' Stylist''s Emerald Street

''Incredible'' Deborah Levy

A hero of political thought, the largely unsung and often misunderstood Hannah Arendt is perhaps best known for her landmark book, The Origins of Totalitarianism.

Arendt led an extraordinary life. Having endured Nazi persecution firsthand, she fled across Europe, coming to live in a world inhabited by such luminaries as Marc Chagall, Marlene Dietrich, Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud. She ultimately sacrificed her unique genius for philosophy and her love of a much-compromised man – the philosopher and Nazi-sympathiser Martin Heidegger – for what she called ''love of the world''.

Strikingly illustrated, this compassionate and timely biography illuminates the life of a complex, controversial, deeply flawed yet irrefutably courageous woman whose experiences and writings shine a light on how to live as an individual and a public citizen in troubled times.