Authors are authors and we are drawn to their works because of their style, their narrative, and their characters and how each part is assembled into the arc of the whole.

But are we? Do social conventions, or fashion or other influences decide what we read or what we listen to?

Its famously said that everyone has a story, everyone should be heard.

So, when we discover a particular author has a dark past, a difficult character, what do we do?

Europe was in the last century riven by two catastrophic world wars and a myriad of other local ones. And like good citizens everywhere our thoughts are stilled by the word 'Fascist'. This word which originally meant many strands held together to make a stronger whole is now a one word response to evil and work done in its name.

In this volume our approach has been to take authors of then great renown, two of whom won the Nobel Prize, and compile a work from each which is seen in a literary context rather than in the heinous shadow of their political and social beliefs.

We are taught that authors write of their own experiences, but is that really true? Can an author be separated from their nihilistic approach to politics and actually be a good writer who adds to our knowledge and experience rather than taint us with their reprehensible beliefs on their fellow man.

Its an ongoing argument. Perhaps both sides are right. Perhaps both sides are wrong.