Joseph Roth, The Legend of the Holy Drinker, 1939

A short tale about the last days of a Paris down-and-out whose life is suddenly filled with small miracles, and Roth drank himself to death in similar fashion at the age of 45, a month after he finished writing it. It’s concise but enjoyable with a mature economy with words being very evident, and through it you get the sense of the last throes of an aimless life, a knot unravelling. Sad but potent.  PY

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