Zeno's Conscience

Long hailed as a seminal work of modernism in the tradition of Joyce and Kafka, and now available in a supple new English translation, Italo Svevos charming and splendidly idiosyncratic novel conducts readers deep into one hilariously hyperactive and endlessly self-deluding mind.

The mind in question belongs to Zeno Cosini, a neurotic Italian businessman who is writing his confessions at the behest of his psychiatrist.

Here are Zenos interminable attempts to quit smoking, his courtship of the beautiful yet unresponsive Ada, his unexpectedand unexpectedly happymarriage to Adas homely sister Augusta, and his affair with a shrill-voiced aspiring singer.

Relating these misadventures with wry wit and a perspicacity at once unblinking and compassionate, Zenos Conscience is a miracle of psychological realism.