Vienna of the late nineteenth century, with its contrasting images of pomp and profound melancholy, provides the backdrop for Joseph Roth's final novel, which he completed in exile, a few years before his tragic death in 1939. The Tale of the 1002nd Night is a brilliant, allegorical tale of seduction and personal and societal ruin, set amidst exquisite, wistful descriptions of a waning aristocratic age, and provides an essential link to our understanding of Roth's extraordinary fictive powers.

Joseph Roth (1894-1939) worked as a journalist in Vienna and Berlin until Hitler's rise. He then emigrated to Paris, where he died in 1939. Michael Hoffman is widely regarded as one of the world's foremost translators of works from German to English. He lives in London.