'Astonishing... In the American journalist Andrew Nagorski this tale has found its ideal narrator'
SEBASTIAN FAULKS, Sunday Times
'A gripping masterpiece'
BRETT KAHR, Freud Museum London
March 1938: German soldiers are massing on the Austrian border, on the cusp of fulfilling Hitler's dream of absorbing the country into the Third Reich. Many Jews make frantic plans to flee to safety. But one of the most famous men in the world, unable to contemplate leaving his beloved Vienna, is not among them. His name is Sigmund Freud.
Saving Freud is the story of a great man's life, and of the extraordinary people who managed to prolong it, by convincing him to escape to London: the Welsh physician who brought psychoanalysis to Britain; Napoleon's great-grandniece; an American ambassador; Freud's devoted daughter, Anna; and the doctor who risked his own life by staying at Freud's side.
In examining the histories of both Freud and his closest circle, Andrew Nagorski brilliantly evokes the story of Europe in the first half of the Twentieth Century. This is a tale of a great city, a collapsing empire, a rising terror -and of a man who would change the way we think.
Title: Saving Freud: A Life in Vienna and an Escape to Freedom in London
Author: Nagorski, Andrew
ISBN: 9781785788765
Binding:
Publisher: Icon Books
Publication Date: 2022-08-04
Number of Pages: 336
Weight: 0.5592 kg
The astonishing story of Sigmund Freud's last-minute escape from Vienna... In the American journalist Andrew Nagorski this tale has found its ideal narrator: clear, objective and keen to keep things moving. -- Sebastian Faulks * Sunday Times *
Andrew Nagorski has written a gripping masterpiece about one of the greatest figures in history, whose insights about human beings as savage beasts could not be more timely -- Professor Brett Kahr, Honorary Director of Research, Freud Museum London, and author of FREUD'S PANDEMICS
An intimate, touching portrait of a genius as an old man. Ill, myopic, in denial and terribly vulnerable, this Freud is more human than any I've encountered before. Andrew Nagorski has an artist's eye for revealing detail and a novelist's ability to bring to life a long lost world and its myriad denizens. -- Sylvia Nasar, author of A BEAUTIFUL MIND
Fascinating... As Nagorski illustrates with cultural insight and a careful pacing of events, his flight to safety in order to 'die in freedom' amounts to a tale of unlikely resistance at a time of appalling tragedy. -- Simeon House * Mail on Sunday **** *
In his fascinating new book Saving Freud, American author Andrew Nagorski pieces together the story of an eccentric bunch of friends and admirers of Freud -- Ysenda Maxtone Graham * Daily Mail, Book of the Day *
A richly contextual look at Freud's escape to London... Nagorski delivers a riveting page-turner... a fine biography * Kirkus starred review *
Sigmund Freud's vibrant life in Vienna and narrow escape from the Gestapo are recounted in this entertaining history... The result is an invigorating look at a lesser-known chapter of Freud's well-documented life. * Publisher Weekly *
As exciting and suspenseful as a spy novel, Andrew Nagorski's masterful narrative reveals how an eclectic group of Sigmund Freud's friends, ranging from an American ambassador to a French-born princess, came together to do the seemingly impossible: engineer his rescue from Nazi-controlled Austria as the Gestapo were closing in. Their successful efforts underscore how powerful love, loyalty, and friendship can be, even in the midst of overwhelming evil -- Lynne Olson, author of MADAME FOURCADE'S SECRET WAR
A riveting analysis of exile, old-age and friendship, Nagorski uses his characteristic clarity to tell an untold story about a well-known man. Highly exciting and no less historically ambitious for it; John Le Carre meets Ian Kershaw -- Emma Szewczak, author of THE OFFSET
With his characteristic clarity and meticulous research, Nagorski has once again produced a masterful work. Saving Freud is a page-turner, mixing biography and escape narrative, with a powerful reminder that historians need to pay attention not just to words, but to relationships -- Rebecca Erbelding, author of RESCUE BOARD
Part engrossing biography of the father of psychoanalysis, part vivid group portrait of the circle of notables who rescued Sigmund Freud from the Nazis, Saving Freud ... captures the power of self-delusion and denial among even the most brilliant minds -- Kati Marton, author of THE CHANCELLOR
In a time in which the standing and integrity of psychoanalysis continues to be questioned, [Saving Freud] manages to show the extent to which people were entranced by Freud, how much this led some of them to love him, and how in doing so they revealed the deep ethical core of his person and his ideas -- Stephen Frosh * Jewish Chronicle *