Russian

THE GANGSTER

By Yuri Herman, author o/Antonina. Translated by Stephen
Garry. 7*. 6d. net

The story of a criminal's regeneration and return to Decent
society, told without moralising and without the sudden
conversion beloved of revivalists. It is through the accumu-
lation of petty factors that the criminal's transformation takes
Elace, and even at the end there is no stressing the point that
e is now a saved man. There is no propaganda about Soviet
justice and the absence of moralising lifts the novel right out
of the general category of lost and saved novels.

Austrian
NOVEL OF AUSTRIAN LIFE
By Franz Hoellering. Translated by Ludwig Lewisohn.
gs. 6d. net
AUSTRIA is perhaps the most romantic country in Europe,
and the Austrians, with their mondanitJ, poise and richness of
culture, the most lovable subjects; but since the war Austria
has had a tragic history. Vienna, once the capital of a proud
empire, became the centre of a truncated buffer state, and
has now been submerged in the rising tide of Nazidom. This
novel is a picture of Austria in the days immediately pre-
ceeding the bloody suppression of the Socialists in February,
1934. The opening and closing scenes, set in a Viennese cafe,
are designed to reveal the effect which the all-pervading
political crisis had on the lives of the principal characters* .
This is an arresting novel. The characters really live and
immediately engage the readers' interest and sympathy, the
linking together of characters of different social strata has
been realistically managed, and the social criticism happily
J&terwoven in the narrative, either aspect enriching the other*