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Joseph Roth's least-known yet most autobiographical novel begins with a dire warning: T̀he Antichrist has come; so disguised that we...cannot recognize him.' He is in our very midst, cleverly disguised as one of us. It is a race against time as the Antichrist seeks to spread his trickery and to poison the minds of the innocent masses. Roth takes us on a whirlwind journey around the world as he attempts to expose the Antichrist at every turn, in every corner of the globe. Set between 1905 and 1933, the novel begins with the protagonist's first encounter with the Antichrist and then recounts his exploits during the First World War and his subsequent employment as a newspaper reporter for the mysterious and malevolent M̀aster of a Thousand Tongues'. As our hero J.R. travels on assignment to the Soviet Union, the United States, Germany and elsewhere he encounters delicious ironies and unspeakable evils. Over the course of the book Roth skewers countless aspects of the contemporary condition: communism, fascism, capitalism, atheism, modern architecture, Hollywood, the League of Nations, journalism, xenophobia and bigotry of many sorts.

Antichrist