The Radetzky March Av Joseph Roth

<p><b><i>NEW STATESMAN </i>BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2015 </b><br><br><b>''Sublime ... it inspires a kind of evangelical cult passion among its devotees'' Simon Schama<br><br>''Roth is Austria''s Chekhov'' William Boyd<br></b> <br><i>Strauss''s Radetzky March</i>, signature tune of one of Europe''s most powerful regimes, presides over Joseph Roth''s account of three generations of the Trotta family in the years preceding the Austro-Hungarian collapse in 1918. Grandfather, son and grandson are equally dependent on the empire: the first for his enoblement; the second for the civil virtues that make him a meticulous servant of an administration whose failure he can neither comprehend nor survive; the third for the family standards of conduct which he cannot attain but against which he is too enfeebled to rebel.</p>