Austria Behind the Mask: Politics of a Nation Since 1945 by Paul Lendvai

This month we are introducing a work of non-fiction, published in English in 2023, by a respected journalist.  The book is Austria Behind the Mask: Politics of a Nation Since 1945, by Paul Lendvai.  Paul Lendvai is a Hungarian-born Austrian journalist, born in Budapest in 1929. He moved to Austria in 1957, where he works as an author and print and radio journalist.  He became an Austrian citizen in 1959. He has written numerous books and articles on European politics and won many prizes and awards. Paul Lendvai was the Vienna correspondent for the ‘Financial Times’ for over 20 years. At the age of 95 he is still writing regular columns in the Austrian newspaper Der Standard.

The publisher’s description of the book reads as follows:
“From aristocratic and Nazi legacies to parliamentary parties and new populisms, a renowned journalist explores the forces that have shaped Austria’s politics since 1945. Austria has long been considered a European success story: a land-locked country on the losing side of World War Two, which emerged from ten years of post-war occupation as one of the EU’s richest member states, a symbol of social concensus and political independence at the heart of Europe. But in the 2020’s the forward march of the far-right populist FPÖ threatens the return of old demons: extreme xenophobic racism, and economic and political instability.  Mixing personal memories with high political drama, Paul Lendvai reveals the knotted web of forces which have driven Austria to its current perilous state.”

Music played
The Blue Danube by Johann Strauss from the 2015 New Year’s Concert, with the Vienna Philharmoniker under Zubin Mehta

Here are this month’s book recommendations from Reading Circle members

• The Trump Tapes by Bob Woodward. Full interviews between journalist Bob Woodward and Donald Trump conducted from 2016-2022. On Audible, but also available in print and digital formats.
• Fourteen Days, edited by Margaret Atwood and Douglas Roberts. A Corona Pandemic novel, about people in a dilapidated block of New York flats in lockdown. An interesting image of 21st century USA.
• Why Women Grow – Stories of Soil, Sisterhood and Survival by Alice Vincent. An exploration of of why women turn to the earth, as gardeners, growers and custodians.
• The Human Stain by Philip Roth. Racism and cultural appropriation.
• The Bravest Voices: A Memoir of Two Sisters: Heroism During the Nazi Era by Ida Cook.  A moving testament to the extraordinary acts of courage by two everyday heroes.
• Scotland: The Global History: 1603 to the Present by Murray Pittock. An engaging and authoritative history of Scotland‘s influence in the world and the world‘s on Scotland.
• The Shortest History of Germany by James Hawes. Takes us on an unforgettable grand tour of what really matters in German history.
• The Shortest History of England by James Hawes. A fast-paced tour of 2,000 years of English history tracing its secret north-south divide and entrenched class system.
• Trotta und Ich by Christophe W. Bauer. Famous writers in different locations in Paris over the years. In German.
• The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O‘Farrell.  Set in Renaissance Italy and centring on the young duchess Lucrezia de Medici, an unforgettable portrait of a resilient young woman‘s battle for her very survival.

Do join us again next month when we will be discussing The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride.