Stefan Zweig was a born eulogist. In this collection of powerful elegies, homages and personal memories, Zweig forms a richly interconnected portrait of key creative figures in the European cultural diaspora up to 1939. Many of those mourned or celebrated here cast a long spiritual shadow over Zweig's own writing life: Verhaeren, Rolland, Nietzsche, Roth, Mahler, Rilke and Freud. Zweig's farewells, souvenirs and declarations of gratitude demonstrate his ardent pan-Europeanism and rich friendships across borders. Elegant and haunting, these tributes are a monument to his reverence for the arts and his belief in the sacredness of individualism.

"Zweig's accumulated historical and cultural studies [are] almost too impressive to take in" - Clive James

"Repositions Zweig as the European voice, which goes some way to explaining his ongoing popularity... Occasionally sparkling with poetic brilliance, which Will Stone ably conveys" - TLS

"Together, the essays form a beautiful memorial to the cosmopolitan Old Europe that Zweig so loved, and that two World Wars destroyed... There is much to enjoy in the skill of his writing - and in his touchingly old-fashioned belief in literature, and friendship" - ExBerliner Magazine

"In an age of rising nationalism, Zweig was one of the great cosmopolitans... [Encounters and Destinies] captures a special moment in modern European culture, caught for posterity on the eve of catastrophe" - Jewish Chronicle