The Perfection of Things
by Peter Nash
In 1941, the popular Austrian Jewish writer, Stefan Zweig, went into hiding from the Nazis in Brazil. Less than six months later he and his wife committed suicide in a final act of despair. In 2004 a dying American biographer, Adam Ribeira, is making last, desperate effort to complete a critical biography of Zweig, which he has been writing in frustration and anguish for nearly twenty years.