A collection of writings based on Enzensberger's personal experience
as a left-wing sympathizer during the 1960s.
Hans Magnus Enzensberger, widely regarded as Germany's greatest living
poet, was already well known in the 1960s, the tempestuous decade of
which Tumult is an autobiographical record. Derived from old papers,
notes, jottings, photos, and letters that the poet stumbled upon years
later in his attic, the volume is not so much about the man, but rather
the many places he visited and people whom he met on his travels through
the Soviet Union and Cuba during the 1960s. The book is made up of four
long-form pieces written from 1963 to 1970, each episode concluding with
a poem and postscript written in 2014. Translated by Mike Mitchell, the
book is a lively and deftly written travelogue offering a glimpse into
the history of leftist thought. Dedicated to "those who disappeared,"
Tumult is a document of that which remains one of humanity's headiest
times.