Benjamin's Crossing

Benjamin's Crossing is a 1996 historical novel written by Jay Parini about the Jewish critic and philosopher Walter Benjamin, and his escape over the Pyrenees from Nazi occupied France into Spain. It was a New York Times Notable Book of the year in 1997.^[1]

Benjamin's Crossing

First edition cover
Author	Jay Parini
Language	English
Publisher	Holt Paperbacks
Publication date	July 15, 1996
ISBN	978-0805031805

Praise

Benjamin's Crossing received positive reviews. The New York Times wrote "Parini's story is at once painstakingly researched and dramatically recounted. It locates Benjamin's mystifying traits in a vivid and believable psychology. And it has something important to tell us, not just about Benjamin but about the role of the intellectual in modern Western society." The New Yorker called the book "a brisk, moving novel containing a parable without confining itself to a parable's two-dimensionality."