The Find

An old lady seeks refuge from the reality of the war in murderous crime novels, a burglar yearns to return to prison, a millionaire is forced by his wife to bring stolen ties back to the department store, and a thrifty old couple swear by their own manure when it comes to fertilising the flower beds.

On the strength of its quirky characters alone this book would be considered a real "find". In the 1930s Veza Canetti wrote stories which unmistakably captured her hometown of Vienna in its local colour and language. The present volume, assembled from what are almost certainly the last unpublished manuscripts, contains twelve prose texts and two comedies which also take in Spanish scenery and, for the first time, characters and settings in wartime and post-war England.

Veza Canetti's life and her "discovery" as a writer, are the subjects of Angelika Schedel's afterword.