Joseph Roth, The Spider’s Web, 1923

Roth’s debut novel paints a disturbing picture of post-World War 1 Germany, and shows how the seeds of its unfinished war with itself fractured the country still further with the conspiracies of the radical right undermining the Weimar Republic. The writing is often urgent and relentlessly assertive, but with it you get the inside track on what drives Roth’s cunning, duplicitous and feral characters to survive in a dangerous time of national schism. Also worth remembering is that it was written long before the rise of Hitler and National Socialism, which makes the conclusion all the more prophetic and chilling. Excellent.  PY

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