BOOKS: The Radetzky March

Joseph Roth wrote the brilliant novel [published in 1932]   The Radetzky March – about the decline of the Austro-Hungarian Empire – I did not know, until the other day, he was a friend of Stefan Zweig a highly regarded writer whose novels were best sellers, whereas Roth struggled as a journalist, he was always broke, and a great complainer - his talent largely unrecognised.  Stefan Zweig who has basked in his success and lived a charmed life in a house that overlooked Salzburg.  He found life intolerable as a self exiled Austrian Jew.  He and his wife committed suicide in Brazil in 1942.  Recognition came to Joseph Roth but very late.....