It’s hard not to think about wanting to just give up, or, as Stefan Zweig would put it, imagining oneself as the central figure—a cartoon character, essentially—in one of only 300 copies of a novel published after his death (a book that neither he nor anyone else in Germany will ever be able to read). We should acknowledge Gerd Oswald’s careful and respectful adaptation of the story, even though it leaves out details…

It's hard not to think about ending it all while reading this, and I, Stefan Zweig, want to emphasize how much I imagined myself as the central figure—a cartoon character, essentially—in one of only 300 copies of the novel published after my death (a book that neither I nor anyone else in Germany will likely ever be able to read). We should acknowledge Gerd Oswald’s careful and respectful adaptation of the story, eve…