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Italian scholar, novelist, journalist, and philosopher Claudio Magris is among the most prominent of living European intellectuals. This study is the first comprehensive critical analysis of Magris´s corpus for an English-speaking audience and addresses the crucial question of the return to humanism that is moving literature and theory forward.

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Introduction: Claudio Magris´s Geography of Domesticity 1. Households of the Self 2. Homely Memories, Promised Homelands 3. European Thresholds and Relocations 4. From Snug Refuges to Ghastly Cells 5. The Essayist and the Tortoise Conclusion

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"This is the first critical study in English of a major writer whose intellectual contribution embraces a variety of fields. Pireddu´s brilliant analysis illuminates the richness and complexity of Magris´ mind focusing on a previously unrecognized theme the critic calls "temporary home," seen as a polysemantic sign through which Magris challenges ideological absolutism. If the "totalizing ambition" of the novel has no longer a home in a postmodern world, resorting to different writing genres must still be accompanied by a search for meanings, albeit not final. The book will be of great interest to a large public." - Daniela Bini, Professor of Italian and Comparative Literature, University of Texas, Austin, USA

"This book introduces to the English-speaking public the work of Claudio Magris, an essential voice in present-day European thought. Beautifully balanced and organized, it offers an original reading of Magris´s opus, centered on the concept of dwelling. Through Pireddu´s elegant and precise prose readers are led into an intellectual journey that unveils the existential challenges and rewards of inhabiting our contemporary world." - Elena Coda, Associate Professor of Italian, Purdue University, USA

"In her account of Claudio Magris´s works, Nicoletta Pireddu provides a masterful inquiry in to the meaning of belonging and identity. Europe emerges as the site of provisional stability and mobile identities, and at the same time the ground on which to build a human consortium for the 21st century." - Sandra Parmegiani, Associate Professor of Italian and European Studies, University of Guelph, Canada

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Nicoletta Pireddu teaches Italian and Comparative Literature at Georgetown University, USA.

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