Magris, Claudio

(1939– )

   One of Italy’s greatest living writers, Claudio Magris was born in Trieste in 1939. An academic authority on the history and literature of Germany and central Europe, he is also an essayist, novelist, translator, and critic. In the great tradition of central European intellectuals, he prefers to write in the remarkable Habsburg-era cafes of Trieste rather than in his study. He is fascinated by the rich cultural milieu of central Europe (for which Trieste was both the port and meeting place). Magris’s classic work, Danubio (Danube, 1986), about a voyage down the river in which every stopping place gives birth to a profound diary of philosophical reflections, was translated into nearly 20 languages and is widely regarded as a modern literary classic. In June 2004, Magris won the prestigious Prince of Asturias Award for Literature; the Spanish jury cited for special praise his understanding of a Europe that was “diverse and without frontiers, cohesive and open to dialogue between cultures.” Magris’s Microcosmi won the important Strega literary prize in 1997. Magris was briefly a senator (1994–1996), but he has been less deflected from his work by party politics than have most of Italy’s leading intellectuals.