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Where does the German writers' fondness for dying come from? Is this morbid delight something peculiar to singularities or does it permeate the entire Germanic culture? Toni Montesinos answers these questions with an extensive list of authors, lives and works that, overwhelmingly, highlight how death presides over the German language and has marked the historical development of their lands. In this way, the author shows off his mastery of research to offer a history of German literature, from the 18th century to the 21st, in which he questions many of its protagonists, demystifying biographies and books, while taking the reader to that social magnet towards suicide or the mortuary eagerness in the form of wars or the extermination of human beings. As George Clemenceau wrote: "It is in the nature of men to love life. Germany does not practice this cult. In the German soul, in the art, philosophy and literature of this people there is no understanding of what life really is, what constitutes its magic and its greatness. And there is in it a morbid and satanic attraction to death. These people love death.
About the author
Toni Montesinos (Barcelona, 1972) es crítico literario de La Razón desde el año 2000, además de director de Qué Leer y colaborador de Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos, Cultura/s (de La Vanguardia) y El Viajero (de El País). Autor de más de cincuenta libros de diversos géneros: poesía, novela, ensayo, biografía, historias de la literatura y crónicas viajeras, también se ha encargado de editar o prologar obras de una docena de escritores españoles, hispanoamericanos y anglosajones. Con La pasión incontenible. Éxito y rabia en la narrativa norteamericana obtuvo el XI Premio Internacional de Crítica Literaria Amado Alonso. En la editorial Berenice ha publicado La letra herida. Autores suicidas, toxicómanos y dementes (Berenice, 2022). En El Desvelo Ediciones ha publicado los ensayos La larga pintura del hombre y El sueño esclavo, así como las novelas El fantasma de la verdad y La soledad del tirador.
