A Flight Without End presents a captivating story with moments of intrigue, but I find it stumbles in several key areas. Roth’s prose shines throughout the book, particularly his vivid descriptions. His ability to dive deeply into Tunda’s emotions and inner struggles adds a richness to the narrative, creating some thought-provoking passages.

That said, the pacing and structure can be a bit of a rollercoaster. At times, the story drags, making it feel like it’s moving at a snail's pace, only to then suddenly speed up toward the end, as if it’s racing toward the finish line. Additionally, the ending feels predictable and open-ended: something I’m not always a fan of.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the copy of this reissue. Flight Without End comes very close to being an Odyssey in the shape of a short novel. It scratches at the themes of infidelity, post-war sentiments, and politics, but underneath it's the story of a man struggling with the sense of belonging or lack thereof. As the author unfolds the extend of Tunda's affairs and his journey as he flees from country to country, never able to settle, we plunge right into the core of this novel.
I have to admit, it's my first Roth but it definitely got me obsessed.

I struggled to connect to this book until around three-quarters in.

The book follows the story of Tunda (aka Frank Baranowicz), an Austrian soldier, who after WW1, finds himself in Russia. He is betrothed to the lovely Irene who waits for him back in Austria, only for him not to return.

Whilst in Russia, Tunda finds himself captivated by a female soldier, called Natasha, and they begin a relationship, Tunda having completely disregarded Irene and the fact that she is waiting for him back in Austria.

However, it’s not long before Tunda and Natasha drift apart as the differences between them grow bigger - no longer having the war in common.

Tunda then has his head turned by a Georgian girl called, Alja, who he marries. Tunda eventually leaves Alja all alone and travels back across Europe intending to reconnect with Irene.

He is able to reside with his brother in Germany whilst he investigates Irene’s whereabouts. He hears that she may have remarried, having finally given up on Tunda. He is told she may be in Paris.

Tunda travels to Paris, a picture of Irene attached to his breast. He hopes to confirm once and for all the rumours he has heard about Irene’s whereabouts.

Whilst in Paris, Tunda comes into contact with several characters including dignitaries. Just when he’s about to give up hope, and set off once more with another woman, he catches sight of Irene…

Definitely more along the lines of The Coral Merchant than the superior Roth books I've also seen courtesy this publisher, I didn't find anything here to enjoy, or to make me believe this would have a layman audience. No, this is for the academic and student of the author alone. It features a bloke finding that – after a four year long war and a time stumbling into a revolutionary army immediately afterwards – his life is meandering, bleak and unstructured. And as a result it too is very meandering, very bleak – and on the unstructured side as well. Certainly it wasn't for me – one and a half stars.

This book, for which I have kindly been sent a copy in return for an honest review (many thanks to Netgalley and Pushkin Press Classics), is a re-issue of a novel first published in 1927. It follows the story of Franz Tunda, an Austrian Jew who finds himself in Siberia after the end of the Great War and gradually works his way back to a society which believes him lost.

Tunda’s travels (and his frequent sexual relationships) take him through revolutionary Russia, into Baku, back to Vienna, then to an unnamed university town on the Rhine and finally to Paris, where he at last encounters his long-lost fiancée. Readers used to a more modern novel might find the structure a little lacking and occasionally confusing (the narration switches between an abstract third person, Tunda’s diary, and a friend) but I didn’t find this off-putting.

I’ve always been fascinated by Europe between the wars, not just in terms of its political history, which can be complicated as well as dark, but with its society. This novel, written during the period, is overwhelmingly realistic and, though without the knowledge of the horrors was to come (like the author, the protagonist is Jewish). still contains hints at the darker forces that were stirring. As Tunda moved between spheres and adapts to them, always looking back with what feels like a curious detachment on the life he had, and the man he was, before, I was left with an overwhelming impression of the transience and brittleness of post-war European society.



I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I both enjoyed and feel enlightened by this bittersweet novel.

This book was beautifully written and so impactful. Roth has beautiful writing, and this book will impact you. The characters feel so real and so do the emotions. It was a wonderful book to read and I expect nothing less from Puskin Press and their authors

This was a pretty good back. I liked the thematic work especially but it kind of felt like something was missing? Not sure what it was.

While reading this book, I came to realise that how a fictional work can give more information on the history of a period and place than elaborate writings by professional historians. While it does not detail specific events and individuals, after reading 'Flight Without End,' one gets an accurate feeling of what it was like in post-World War I era Europe, and one may even glimpse the making of the disillusionment that ultimately made them fight another World War in the next decade.

Flight Without End by Joseph Roth, tr from German by David Le Vay & Beatrice Musgrave is broadly about the world's indifference to men who went to war, died fighting and men who came back home alive only to realise there isn't any home for them.

The protagonist, a first lieutenant in the Austrian army, Franz Tunda becomes a Russian POW in Aug 1916. He escapes the prison with the help of a Siberian, Baronowickz with whom he stays in a dreary, desolate farm at taiga’s edge, disconnected from the world only to learn in 1919 that WW1 ended a year ago. With a photo of his fiancee clamped to his coat, he wishes to return home to Vienna hoping she would be awaiting his return. But like a leaf blown by the wind that moves offering almost no resistance, he becomes a slave of circumstances of his own volition. He lives in Kiev, Baku, in towns on the Rhine, in Berlin; finally reaches Paris years later where his fiancee is happily married in a rich, aristocratic household for years.

At no point, Tunda feels remorse or heartache, his life dwindles between expectations & resignation. At times sagacious, at others preposterous, always indolent, full of himself, angry at the world around, he is unable to identify with any ruling ideology. He joins the Red Army for the sake of a dashing woman, loves the Revolution because he loves her, then marries a quiet woman at Baku, even has a brief affair with a French aristocrat.

As the narrative switches between first and third person, this disillusioned man's journey in search of a place he can call home lay bare Western Europe’s bias/prejudices towards Russia, hatred for the bourgeois harboured by the proletariat, divide between capitalism and socialism. Each community bragged about its ideology/policies, patronage for art, theatre, music but what is a community that treated poverty like a disease, an epitome of unmanliness. Written with a philosophical tint, the novella is an abstract portrait of conceptions that ruled the world during WW1 years, some maybe still prevail.

Note: The protected PDF sent to Kindle had the first line missing from every chapter. Kindly look into this error so that a reader's ease/joy of reading isn't spoilt.