Zweig was a poet, philosopher, historian, and novelist. He was friends with some of his most prominent contemporaries, including Freud and Dali. Here, he chronicles his era in vivid, intelligent, and frank memoirs, as if they were his most important novels. The Austrian writer Stefan Zweig, born in Vienna in 1881, did not have a stable, secure life. The life that seemed easy and calm in his early childhood and youth soon revealed its sharp fangs to a young boy finding his first footing in the world of writing, creativity, and art. The last years of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century witnessed stability in the European continent. However, the pace of crises began with the outbreak of World War I (1914-1918), which heralded the entry of this peaceful continent into a period of deadly conflicts. The rise of Nazism in Germany, and Fascism in Italy. The Spanish Civil War broke out. By the end of the 1930s, a cultural vacuum and economic collapse prevailed, culminating in the outbreak of World War II (1939-1945), a war Zweig never saw coming. He committed suicide in the Brazilian city of Petropolis on February 23, 1942. This suicide was an expression of protest against the madness that had afflicted the European continent, igniting devastating wars that claimed the lives of millions. The writer saw no alternative but to leave after his energies had been exhausted by “the long years of displacement.” But he wished his friends a better life, writing in a brief letter, just before committing suicide: “May they see the dawn after this long night! And here I am, leading them, my patience completely exhausted.” This dramatic life, divided between exiles, and which contained bitter ironies, is the focus of Zweig’s memoirs, “The World of Yesterday,” which was recently translated into Arabic by Dar Al-Mada in Damascus, signed by Aref Hadifa. The World of Yesterday - Stefan Zweig