Prodigious 5

This short novel by Stefan Zweig reads in one go, without difficulty and with passion.
It takes us into the amazing world of the human brain and its sometimes surprising capacity, but unfortunately also limited, some extreme situations that can lead, despite all the intellectual power to be the most balanced that is, schizophrenia and up Dementia, of which he is then difficult to divest.

Novel written after the rise of Nazism, subsequent to the annexation of Austria and Czechoslovakia, it is mostly the novel from captivity, oppression, attempting to intellectual and cultural resistance against the destruction and the destruction of a world (see The World of Yesterday Memories of a European).
The game of chess is only a pretext, but a beautiful symbol of intellectual surge that can cause without that culture or other forms of intelligence, including emotional, there are unfortunately bound associated.
A beautiful reflection on the power of the brain, but especially on the ultimate importance of discernment and resistance against attempts to storm of the century, the deep disappointment and pessimism Stefan Zweig will not allowed to exceed, resulting as we know, suicide with his wife ...