The tortoises

the long version

"Ten days after Kristallnacht in November 1938, Veza and Elias Canetti left Vienna. Her novel The Tortoises was written immediately upon their arrival in London, in the short span of three months.". "Never before translated into English, The Tortoises describes the flight of a couple much like the Canettis. Andreas Kain, a writer, and Eva, his devoted wife, live quiety in a secluded villa outside Vienna. Their lives, however, are gradually destroyed by rising Nazism, as more and more people from the new Third Reich appropriate rooms in their home - most especially their enemy, the high party official Herr Pilz ("Mr. Mushroom"). And like a fungus, Nazism's daily cruelties intrude on their life and eat it up."--BOOK JACKET.