A New York Times Notable BookWalter Benjamin (1892-1940) was among the most important intellectuals of this century: a seminal critic and philosopher. He has, in the past three decades, acquired almost cult status in the academic world. In Benjamin's Crossing, Jay Parini tracks Benjamin through his last, terrible months. The story opens with his desperate flight from Paris, on the heels of the Nazi invasion in 1940. It depicts his various, often tragicomic, attempts to flee France, culminating in his frantic escape over the Pyrenees into Spain. Benjamin's Crossing is a lyrical novel of ideas. It is also a love story dramatizing one of the most moving peripheral episodes of the Holocaust. Jay Parini is an acclaimed poet, novelist, and biographer. He teaches at Middlebury College and lives in Vermont. A New York Times Notable BookWalter Benjamin (1892-1940) was among the most important intellectuals of this century: a seminal critic and philosopher. In Benjamin's Crossing, Jay Parini tracks Benjamin through his last, terrible months. The story opens with his desperate flight from Paris in 1940, one step ahead of the Nazis. It depicts his various, often tragicomic attempts to flee France, culminating in his frantic escape over the Pyrenees into Spain. "A piercing, magnificent novel."—Amos Oz"Parini's [Benjamin's Crossing] is at once painstakingly researched and dramatically recounted . . . It has something important to tell us."—The New York Times Book Review"A brisk, moving novel containing [a] parable without confining itself to a parable's two-dimensionality."—The New Yorker "Parini's exquisite achievement—and exquisite is exactly the word for his poet's fluid prose—is that the social criticism he channels through Walter Benjamin in this novel is as troubling today as then."—The Philadelphia Inquirer"Benjamin's Crossing is a novel based in the factual record that imagines, with great vividness and power, the writer's last year."—Dan Cryer, Newsday"Parini's re-creation of [Benjamin's] life is a tender, wise and even sadly funny achievement."—New York Daily News"In a formidable display of intellectual and imaginative sympathy, Parini novelizes the life and death of Walter Benjamin, one of the major literary and cultural critics of the twentieth century."—Publishers Weekly (starred)"So immersed was Parini in Benjamin's writing, he was able to convincingly imagine his subject's thoughts and dreams, conveying, in the process, not only Benjamin's brilliance, but his utter helplessness. Parini's vital and affecting vision of Benjamin will do much to preserve Benjamin's precious legacy."—Booklist (starred review) Read Less