Journal, 1935-44

The diary of a Rumanian Jewish writer who lived in Bucharest throughout the thirties and the war, The Fascist Years records Mihail Sebastian's increasing experience of anti-semitism, the increasing restrictions on his freedom, his increasing alienation from his Aryan friends as they compromise with Rumania's fascist regime, as well as his love of music, reading and books..

The obvious comparison is with Victor Klemperer's diary, published recently in two volumes by Weidenfeld, another diary of a Jew who survived the war and escaped the camps, but Sebastian is by far the better writer and by far the more interesting person.