Claudio Magris

A native of Trieste, the Italian writer Claudio Magris is best known for Danube, first published in 1986. “Though I do not in the least overrate my capacities and chances in struggling against injustice, lying, cruelty and oppression,” he once said in an interview, “I believe this is the primary duty of every man, however modest his powers, and therefore the writer’s duty as well. I believe that every life deserves respect and that it is the job of the writer—let us say it is my instinctive vocation—to go in search of every life, however unimportant.”