The Play of the Eyes (Picador Books)

This is the third volume of Elias Canetti's autobiography, following "The Tongue Set Free" and "The Torch in My Ear". It is set in Vienna between 1931 and 1937, at a time when the European catastrophe was already clear to anyone with eyes to see. The book is both a portrait of its time and an intellectual and spiritual autobiography. Canetti describes his relationships with Herman Broch, Robert Musil, Fritz Wortruba, the composer Alban Berg, and Alma Mahler.