I've never before read [a biography] that caused me to bolt upright midway through, as if its subject had just come back from the dead.--Kathryn Schulz "The New Yorker"
Fascinating.... [A] book of unique importance regarding national memory and commemoration.--Ephraim Zuroff "Jerusalem Report"
A literary-historical feat. [Balint] has stepped beyond the legend of Bruno Schulz as a writer and artist to explore the nature of legend itself, especially its historical, cultural, and political implications.... Aside from Balint's deft handling of Schulz's life and artwork, his meticulous treatment of the murder--the lead-up to it and its aftermath--is crucial to the central questions of the book: whether Schulz's greater cultural legacy comes from his writing or his art, and how his martyrdom as a victim of the Holocaust figures into his reputation.... Balint challenges us to look beyond our own noses and cultivate a perspective that spans decades, centuries, or even millennia.--David Stromberg "The Hedgehog Review"
An impassioned narrative.... A gripping, nuanced portrayal of Schulz's world.--Barbara Morris "Artillery"
Balint does a fine job of capturing Schulz's life and his world before the war, his deeply peculiar mind and the fascinating figures in whose orbit he moved.--Joe Moshenska "The Observer"
Balint's account of Schulz's life and art is rich and captivating. . . . Schulz the visual artist is still too little and too imperfectly known. Much work remains to be done on this aspect of his creativity, and to recentre our understanding of his artistic legacy alongside his legacy as a writer. Bruno Schulz makes a significant step in this direction, and will be of interest to both the scholarly and the casual reader. For the success of this effort, Balint merits much praise.--Marta Figlerowicz "Jewish Quarterly"
Balint's thoroughly researched book, its notes as engaging as its text, does full justice to his complex subject, placing Schulz in context while advocating sensitively for his place in the pantheon of the great creatives of the mid-twentieth century.--Mark Glanville "The Critic"
Balint tells this story--which turns out to be multiple stories, obscured by the fog of war and rumor's sfumato--and virtuosically relates them to Schulz's own tales, while providing the clearest, most evenhanded account to date of the tangled afterlife of the Master of Drohobych.... [Balint is] an unflaggingly curious and fastidious critic.... and demonstrates with sensitivity how in the clash between so-called intellectual property rights and so-called moral rights, the only sure loser is the artist himself, especially if he is no longer around to defend (or define) himself.--Joshua Cohen "New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice)"
Offers not just an astute biographical portrait but an investigation into the contested rituals of remembrance.... Balint's meticulous account of the 'fresco fiasco, ' which saw Schulz's last works forcibly claimed by the Israeli state, raises grave issues about 'the stewardship of suffering.'--Boyd Tonkin "Wall Street Journal"
Engaging and provocative.... This biography, which weaves well-chosen, colourful threads from Schulz's writings into the threadbare fabric of his days, stands as the best brief introduction to the author currently available in English.--Boris Dralyuk "Times Literary Supplement [UK]"
[Schulz's] reach, eventually, was global. The cult of Schulz, counting literary household names like Philip Roth, Jonathan Safran Foer, and Isaac Bashevis Singer (who, Balint gossips, liked Schulz better even than Kafka), proves it.... Schulz gets compared to Kafka because of his dreamy, disconcerting stories, but in Balint's book, a version of Schulz emerges that is closer to one of Kafka's characters.--Leo Lasdun "The Millions"
A perfect sequel to Balint's previous book, the award-winning Kafka's Last Trial.--Adam Kirsch "New Republic"
An important new account that sheds light on many previously unknown aspects of Schulz's life and posthumous existence.... A welcome addition to our fund of information about a remarkable European master.--Ewa Hryniewicz-Yarbrough "American Scholar"
Balint reflects on the meaning of the controversy over who owns Schulz's murals--a debate about the location of Jewish memory and the question of its legitimate home-land. 'How does Schulz's orphaned art, ' he asks, 'figure in the politics of erasure?' It is a poignant, cosmic question with no easy answers.--Donald Weber "Jewish Book Council"
Excellent.... An absorbing, terrifying history of a special writer who deserves to be known for reasons entirely apart from the historical nightmare that engulfed him.--Scott Bradfield "The Spectator [UK]"
Schulz's destiny is terrifying and exemplary, and Balint retells his life in captivating fashion.--David Mikics "Tablet"
What a wonderfully empathetic biography Balint has written, so vividly does he bring Schulz back to life, both as a writer and an artist of prodigious, otherworldly talents.--Tobias Grey "Airmail"
Balint vividly, insightfully, and affectingly casts light on long-shadowed Schulz and his startlingly original work, composing a freshly enlightening, harrowing, and invaluable chapter in the perpetual history of genocide and the courage and transcendence of artists.--Booklist, starred review
Spellbinding.... Balint's dogged research and lucid analyses shed light on the interplay between Schulz's psychology and his art. It's a fascinating portrait of the artist in extremis.--Publishers Weekly, starred review
A well-informed consideration of the life and legacy of the Polish Jewish writer and artist who died during World War II.... In this incisive portrait, Balint also delves into the enormous influence of Schulz on Philip Roth, Cynthia Ozick, and Jonathan Safran Foer, among many others writers. A poignant, passionate revisiting of an important literary and artistic voice.-- "Kirkus Reviews"