The Tortoises

Ten days after Kristallnacht in November 1938 Veza and Elias Canetti leftVienna. <strong>The Tortoises</strong> was written in the short span of three monthsimm... » 

Ten days after Kristallnacht in November 1938 Veza and Elias Canetti leftVienna. The Tortoises was written in the short span of three monthsimmediately upon their arrival in London.The Tortoises Veza Canettis spare cinematic and devastating noveldescribes the expatriation of a couple much like the Canettis Andreas Kain awriter and Eva his devoted wife live in a quiet secluded villa outsideVienna. Their lives however are gradually destroyed by rising Nazism as moreand more people from the new Third Reich appropriate rooms in their home most especially their enemy the high party official Mr. Pilz meaningmushroom or fungus. And like a fungus Nazisms daily cruelties intrude ontheir life and eat it up. Veza Canetti selected as a main motif the tortoise apeaceful animal symbolic of long life wisdom and seclusion. Andreas Kain atthe novels start rescues some tortoises who are about to be branded withswastikas and sold as souvenirs of the Anschluss. But when the Kains discoverwith horror that one already bears naturally in the pattern of its shell aswastika it portends no happy ending. «