'Zweig's fictional masterpiece' GUARDIAN 'An intoxicating, morally shaking read... A real reminder of what fiction can do best' ALI SMITH 'It's just a masterpiece. When I read it I thought, how is it that I don't already know about this?' WES ANDERSON _______________ The only novel written by one of the most popular writers of the twentieth century In 1913, young second lieutenant Hofmiller discovers the terrible danger of pity. He had no idea the girl was lame when he asked her to dance-so begins a series of visits, motivated by pity, which relieve his guilt but give her a dangerous glimmer of hope. Stefan Zweig's unforgettable novel is a devastating depiction of the betrayal of both honour and love, amid the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

"It's just a masterpiece. When I read it I thought, how is it that I don't already know about this?" - Wes Anderson

"Zweig's fictional masterpiece" - Guardian

"It really touched me. I'm not an easy crier, not at all. But this book was one of the few moments that I found myself sobbing. It was a knife to my heart" - Shira Haas, star of Netflix hit series 'Unorthodox'

"The novel I'll really remember reading this year is Stefan Zweig's frighteningly gripping Beware of Pity, first published in 1939 ... and part of the ongoing, valiant reprinting by Pushkin Press of Zweig's collected oeuvre; an intoxicating, morally shaking read about human responsibilities and a real reminder of what fiction can do best" - TLS Book of the Year 2008

"An unremittingly tense parable about emotional blackmail, this is a book which turns every reader into a fanatic" - Intelligent Life (The Economist)

"Beware of Pity is the most exciting book I have ever read...a feverish, fascinating novel" - Sunday Telegraph

"Original and powerful" - The New York Times

"Combines great storytelling with wonderful prose" - Independent

"It's a masterpiece. I didn't discover it till I was 16-years-old. He was number one on the bestseller lists in the 1940s. He was a great storyteller and a great writer, amazing combination" - DNA India

"Beware of Pity is chillingly resonant in the Trump era... [in Beware of Pity] this sense of creeping decomposition is compulsively alive. It is hypnotic" - Guardian

"I was riveted by it" - Colin Firth

"Absolutely marvellous" - Roy Hodgson

"In the novel a character remarks that 'the human tendency to self-delusion likes to declare dangers null and void even when we sense in our hearts that they are real" - Evening Standard (review of stage adaptation)

"Beware of Pity... is a tale of the past, memory and regret set in a world about to turn" - The Stage