On the Edge of the Abyss. Artists, Writers and intellectuals on the Eve of the Second World War

In 1938, Europe started to understand that the peace it had come to know was now nothing more than an illusion, as the continent was swiftly descending toward the brink of war. Some of the first to recognise this, though not all, were intellectuals, artists and writers. Marina Valensise has dedicated Sul baratro to them. Città, artisti e scrittori d’Europa alla vigilia della Seconda Guerra Mondiale is a passionate exploration of the anxieties, torments and even indifference that permeated the artistic and cultural circles of Europe's capitals on the eve of the Second World War. The book spans from Vienna to Budapest, Berlin to Paris, Prague to Moscow, and Rome to Brussels. As unsettling questions about the future and peace arise, the Roman author and German essayist Uwe Wittstock, renowned for his work February 1933. The Winter of Literature, which chronicles the devastating effects of Hitler's rise to power on Germany's literary and artistic spheres, delves  into the position, role and fate of intellectuals amidst historical upheavals.