Arthur Koestler

Born in Budapest in 1905, Arthur Koestler was a pivotal European writer and intellectual who inspired, provoked and intrigued in equal measure. Koestler wrote enduring works of reportage and memoir but he is most famous for his political novel Darkness at Noon. Edward Saunders offers a fresh and unbiased account of the life and work of an enigmatic, challenging writer who continues to polarise opinion today.

Engaging directly with the controversial claims of sexual violence that emerged in the years after Koestler’s suicide, Saunders differentiates between the life Koestler led, the story he wanted to tell about it, and the disintegration of Koestler’s public reputation after his death.