Burning Secret by Stefan Zweig (1911)

A young man befriends a lonely boy in an effort to seduce the boy's mother.

Book Review: Burning Secret travels within minds. It's a small crime that I've never read this writer before. Austrian author Stefan Zweig (1881-1942) has the ability to let the reader see through three different pairs of eyes, three different sets of feelings, three different personalities. This is a novella of emotions, all of which ring strikingly true. Without being oppressively psychological, Zweig takes the reader inside to feel empathy for three people, none of whom are wholly sympathetic. The story of a 12-year-old growing up: "Dimly he felt that the secret was the bolt on the door of childhood." The plot of Burning Secret is simple, a young man callously befriends the lonely boy in an attempt seduce his mother. The boy tries to understand as best he can. Later, "He had lost all impatience with life ... for the first time he had seen it as it was, no longer enveloped in the thousand lies of childhood, but naked in its own dangerous beauty." It's astonishing that Zweig chose to tell this story of seduction, this study of human nature, from the point of view of the boy. A novella with the power to change the reader even as the characters do. The tone of the writing is perfect and the translation is excellent. Burning Secret was my introduction to Zweig and now I must read more.  [5★]