“The World of Yesterday. Memoirs of a European,” by Stefan Zweig

I read this book for almost five months, not because it is big and has more than 450 pages, but because it is not a novel; it is a memoir of a real man with real stories and experiences that should be consumed in parts and slowly digested. This book is very honest and true, and it resembles me our days despite the fact that the book was published more than 80 years ago; there is only one big difference, the path of everything now is much quicker and harsher.

Stefan Zweig was born in Vienna to a wealthy Jewish family in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He studied philosophy and literature in Vienna and Berlin. He survived two World Wars - during the first one, he was in a long residence in Switzerland (Zurich and Geneva), during the second, he was exiled in London, then in Bath, then he fled to the USA and ultimately to Brazil. Besides, he traveled to Paris and Florence. His travelling attitude and life in exile shaped his cosmopolitan outlook.

Zweig became one of the most widely read writers in the world between the wars, his life was bright despite of challenges and uncertainties, he communicated and was close with the most brilliant minds of his time - and, honestly, with geniuses of humanity in any era - Sigmund Freud, Hermann Hesse, Thomas Mann, Rainer Maria Rilke, Richard Strauss, Andre Gide, Auguste Rodin....

His life was full and abundant of beautiful places, smart people, brilliant and genius people, art, and a cultural atmosphere. His life had great meaning and sense even in the middle of chaos and wars.

His description of Vienna, Paris, Berlin, and London - the places I like and would love to live in, somehow - was the same as it is now, but even more delighted, and he depicted them in every tiny detail and difference between those cities. I do not want to rewrite it here, read Zweig and go to these cities, feel them, touch them, smell them....

His description of two World Wars made me speechless - having technologies, progress, and all possibilities after so many years, we are still at the same point from an intellectual and spiritual point of view. We people, did not change at all. We are going in cycles from one to another, not being able to break the cycle of Samsara. Often, when I was reading his book, I questioned myself whether he was writing about the First and Second World Wars or about the war in Ukraine.

Zweig became one of the most famous authors of his days but was then banned by Natzi and Hitler.

Zweig finished his memoir in Petropolis (Brazil) - his main desire was to show the next generations the world before World Wars, to share the prewar European culture, and to tell the truth about wars....

Overwhelmed by exile, the destruction of Europe, and loss of faith in civilization, he committed suicide in Petropolis (Brazil) in 1942.

"But in the last resort, every shadow is also the child of light, and only those who have known the light and the dark, have seen war and peace, rise and fall, have truly lived their lives."