Endless Flight - by Keiron Pim

Book Synopsis

The mercurial, self-mythologizing novelist and journalist Joseph Roth, author of the 20th-century masterpiece The Radetzky March, was the finest observer and chronicler of his age.

Endless Flight travels with Roth from his childhood in the town of Brody on the eastern edge of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to an unsettled life spent roaming Europe between the wars, including spells in Vienna, Paris and Berlin. His decline mirrored the collapse of civilized Europe: in his last peripatetic decade, he opposed Nazism in exile from Germany, his wife succumbed to schizophrenia and he died an alcoholic on the eve of WWII.

Exploring the role of Roth's absent father in his imaginings, his attitude to his Jewishness and his restless search for home, Keiron Pim's gripping account of Roth's chaotic life speaks powerfully to us in our era of uncertainty, refugee crises and rising ethno-nationalism. Published as Roth's works rapidly gain new readers and recognition, Endless Flight delivers a visceral yet sensitive portrait of his quest for belonging, and a riveting understanding of the brilliance and beauty of his work.

Review Quotes

Review in the FT by Rebecca Abrams: 'Deeply considered, rigorously researched and brimming with fascinating details and insights, it situates the man and his work in their wider political and social context, ably showing how Roth "drew from his multiple traumas to create works that endure owing to their conscience, percipience [and] ironic humour."'


Review in the Irish Times by Declan O'Driscoll: 'Kieron Pim... brings all the details of this consistently creative but wretched life together in an engrossing fashion, giving all the historical context we might need... His analysis of Roth's novels is clear and convincing, clear of any fanciful conjecture'


Review in the Jewish Chronicle by David Herman: 'Pim is particularly good on Roth's Jewishness... A dark story, movingly told'


Review in the Observer by Ian Thompson: 'Timely... Keiron Pim's is the first English-language biography of Roth, and what a superb book it is - impeccably researched, extremely readable and, it must be said, grimly relevant in the wake of Putin's assault on Ukraine. With rare verve, Pim exalts Roth as a novelist of tragic pan-European yearning... Unfailingly well-written and informative, Endless Flight is a grand tribute to one of the most discomfiting literary geniuses of the 20th century'


Review in the Spectator by Philip Hensher: 'Nowadays people seem to want their novels to be written by nice, or at any rate personally admirable, authors. They should read this biography, and then The Radetzky March, to see just how great a book a frighteningly unpleasant person could produce.... Pim's achievement is all the more impressive when you realise that this life of the supreme novelist of place was largely written remotely, in lockdown. He somehow stays sympathetic through the worst of Roth'


Review in the TLS by George Prochnik: 'Vivid... convincing... It is Keiron Pim's substantial achievement in Endless Flight to have shown us the magnitude of Roth's struggle in a turbulent era that has alarming parallels with our own.'


Review in Big Issue by Jane Graham, Best Autumn Books: 'Thankfully, with Endless Flight, we finally have an English language biography of Roth. And biographer Pim is worthy of the mammoth task at hand, chronicling the complex story of Roth's ultimately tragic life with sensitivity, intelligence, and some serious and revelatory research... an important biography'


Review in Prospect by Rachel Seiffert: 'Pim's masterstoke is to view Roth first and foremost as a writer... Pim is scrupulous in his research and fair in his assessments, but he goes beyond observing such biographer's duties... The further Pim delves, the richer the picture becomes'

Review in The Guardian by Dorian Lynskey: 'Pim's... effort to understand the man in full is profound and the result feels definitive. His research empowers him to be rigorously skeptical... Pim steadily builds the case that Roth's vagabond life - he lived out of three suitcases and was happiest in hotels - was his animating paradox'


'A superb biography - fascinating, shrewd, insightful...An enthralling, roller-coaster read' --William Boyd

'Beautiful, timely and critically important --Devorah Baum

'Fascinating, sophisticated, meticulous' --Simon Sebag Montefiore

'Utterly engrossing. Endless Flight is a biography of deep humanity, one that captures the individual, the place and the times with acute and affecting brilliance. I loved it' --Philippe Sands

About the Author

Keiron Pim is the author of critically acclaimed Jumpin' Jack Flash: David Litvinoff and the Rock'n'Roll Underworld, which was longlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize and shortlisted in the Wales Book of the Year Awards' category for Creative Non-Fiction. He has written articles for the Guardian, the Daily Telegraph and the Spectator. Alongside his writing, Pim works as a proofreader, an editor and a mentor to aspiring non-fiction authors. He lives in Norwich, England, with his wife and three daughters.