Arrow in the Blue

Oct 10, 2024 6:26 AM

Author:Arthur Koestler

Arrow in the Blue

The first volume of the remarkable autobiography of Arthur Koestler, author of Darkness at Noon.

In 1931, Arthur Koestler joined the Communist Party, an event he felt to be second only in importance to his birth in shaping his destiny. Before that point, he lived a tumultuous and varied existence. He was a member of the duelling fraternity at the University of Vienna; a collective farm worker in Galilee; a tramp and street vendor in Haifa; the editor of a weekly paper in Cairo; the foreign correspondent of the biggest continental newspaper chain in Paris and the Middle East; a science editor in Berlin; and a member of the North Pole expedition of the Graf Zeppelin.

Written with enormous zest, joie de vivre and frankness, Arrow in the Blue is a fascinating self-portrait of a remarkable young man at the heart of the events that shaped the twentieth century.

The second volume of Arthur Koestler's autobiography is The Invisible Writing.

Reviews

A brilliant and deeply moving record of a whole generation as well as of an individual

—— Observer

The cumulative effect is overwhelming

—— New Republic

He is a journalist of ideas on a very high level - the kind we lack and need in this country - who functions midway between the realms of art and of society, but whose function is indispensable, if thought is to be part of culture

—— Saturday Review

Perhaps the most remarkable autobiography since the confessions of Rousseau

—— V. S. Pritchett , New Statesman

Majestic ... The detachment of Conquest's telling adds to the story's horror and its effectiveness

—— Sunday Times

The first thoroughgoing account of the tragedy ... heartrending

—— Telegraph

Essential reading for those who wish to understand the nature of the Soviet system

—— Wall Street Journal

As a meditation about a world on edge, it is well worth reading

—— The Economist

Persuasive . . . runs refreshingly counter to conventional wisdom

—— Bloomberg

Jared Diamond does it again: another rich, original, and fascinating chapter in the human saga-with vital lessons for our difficult times.

—— Steven Pinker, author of 'Enlightenment Now'

Upheaval is a brilliant, gripping, personal account of nations in crisis, informed by how people respond to crisis. It's an especially timely read today, when nations are stressed and have much to learn about how to survive big challenges. I urge you to read it.

—— Paul Ehrlich, author of 'Jaws: The Story of a Hidden Epidemic'

In Upheaval, I find eye-opening lessons about the political and psychological forces that lead to crisis and then resilience, how individuals and nations experience trauma in similar ways, and what that suggests about our future and the world's . . . wise and beautiful.

—— Diane Ackerman, author of 'The Zookeeper's Wife'

Jared Diamond is one of the deepest thinkers and most authoritative writers of our time-arguably of all time-and Upheaval proves his prescience in analyzing historical crises within nations at a time when national crises have erupted around the world . . . No scientist has ever won the Nobel Prize for literature. Jared Diamond should be the first.

—— Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic magazine and author of 'Heavens on Earth'

Sparky . . . captures what made that 1958 play [A Taste of Honey] an era-defining classic

—— Daily Telegraph

A breezy, readable new biography… Todd’s portrait is enlivened by anecdotes from friends and family… she uses a polyphonic approach…including many examples from other ordinary women’s adjacent experiences

—— Holly Williams , i

I...hugely enjoyed Tastes of Honey, Selina Todd’s heroic attempt to do the impossible and explain the life and work of the mysterious Shelagh Delaney. Alongside Andrea Dunbar, Delaney was our most unexpected and gifted postwar playwright

—— David Hare , New Statesman, *Books of the Year*

[A] brilliant biography

—— Steven Long , Crack

What makes Atkinson an exceptional writer – and this is her most ambitious and most gripping work to date – is that she does so with an emotional delicacy and understanding that transcend experiment or playfulness. Life After Life gives us a heroine whose fictional underpinning is permanently exposed, whose artificial status is never in doubt; and yet one who feels painfully, horribly real to us.

—— Alex Clark , Guardian

Deliriously inventive, sharply imagined and ultimately affecting...The scenes set in Blitz-stricken London will stay with me forever...Atkinson has written something that amounts to so much more than the sum of its (very many) parts. It almost seems to imply that there are new and mysterious things to feel and say about the nature of life and death, the passing of time, fate and possibility.. . [a]magnificently tender and humane novel.

—— Julie Myerson , Observer

Brilliantly researched, Jack Fairweather's book is both gripping and powerfully written - a riveting and deeply moving tale of courage in the face of unimaginable horror

—— Henry Hemming, bestselling author of M

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