Magnus is a deeply moving and enigmatic novel about the Holocaust. It has been Sylvie Germain's most commercially successful novel in France. Magnus is a man searching for his own identity, who pieces together the complex puzzle of his life, which turns out to be closer to a painting by Edward Munch than the romantic tale of family heroism and self-sacrifice on which he was nurtured by the woman he believed was his mother. In Magnus, Sylvie Germain uses imagination and intuition to unlock the enigma of human life and confer on history the power of myth and fable. AUTHOR: Sylvie Germain was born in Chateauroux in Central France in 1954. She read philosophy at the Sorbonne, being awarded a doctorate. From 1987 until the summer of 1993 she taught philosophy at the French School in Prague. She now lives in Angouleme. Sylvie Germain is the author of thirteen works of fiction, eleven of which have been published by Dedalus, a study of the painter Vermeer and a religious meditation. Her work has been translated into twenty one languages and has received worldwide acclaim. SELLING POINTS: "germain is endowered with extraordinary narrative and descriptive abilities. She excels in portraits of emotional intensity and the gritty realism of raw emotions." -The Independent