"Nagorski tells a riveting new story, one that shows just how narrow Freud’s escape from the Nazi genocide was. . . . The narrative pace and Nagorski’s fluid writing give this book the character of an adventure story. "
— Rachel Newcomb
“Crackles like a novel and sparks with the razzle-dazzle of a big-screen extravaganza: an unforgettable cast of characters (think
The Dirty Dozen), spine-tingling suspense (
The Day of the Jackal), a death-defying savior (maybe
Mephisto), and Nazis—the epitome of evil.”
— Kitty Kelley
"Andrew Nagorski’s absorbing chronicle of Sigmund Freud’s harrowing escape from Nazi occupied Vienna is an insight-filled group portrait of the founder of psychoanalysis and his followers. It is also a psychobiographical thriller about the limits of genius. . . . Their audaciously valiant effort makes for compelling reading."
— Diane Cole
“Thrilling . . . as edge-of-your-seat gripping as any heist movie.”
— Kathryn Hughes
"Nagorski mixes the pacing of a historical thriller (think Alan Furst, but nonfiction, and starring therapists instead of spies) with a meditation on the limits of insight and what it means to be attached to a specific place and to live in a given moment in time. . . . The result is hard to put down, poignant, and distressingly timely."
— Patrick Blanchfield
"Astonishing. . . . In the American journalist Andrew Nagorski this tale has found its ideal narrator: clear, objective and keen to keep things moving. . . It tells its story with a propulsive urgency."
— Sebastian Faulks
"As exciting and suspenseful as a spy novel, Andrew Nagorski’s masterful narrative reveals how an eclectic group of Sigmund Freud’s friends, ranging from an American ambassador to a French-born princess, came together to do the seemingly impossible: engineer his rescue from Nazi-controlled Austria as the Gestapo were closing in. Their successful efforts underscore how powerful love, loyalty, and friendship can be, even in the midst of overwhelming evil."
—Lynne Olson, author of Madame Fourcade's Secret War: The Daring Young Woman Who Led France's Largest Spy Network Against Hitler"An intimate, touching portrait of a genius as an old man. Ill, myopic, in denial and terribly vulnerable, this Freud is more human than any I've encountered before. Andrew Nagorski has an artist's eye for revealing detail and a novelist's ability to bring to life a long-lost world and its myriad denizens."
—Sylvia Nasar, author of A Beautiful Mind“Andrew Nagorski has written a gripping masterpiece about one of the greatest figures in history, whose insights about human beings as 'savage beasts' could not be more timely.”
—Professor Brett Kahr, Honorary Director of Research, Freud Museum London, and author of Freud’s Pandemics: Surviving Global War, Spanish Flu, and the Nazis"Part engrossing biography of the father of psychoanalysis, part vivid group portrait of the circle of notables who rescued Freud from the Nazis,
Saving Freud pulses with urgent life. Nagorski captures the power of self-delusion and denial even among the most brilliant minds. This is also an all too relevant portrait of the speed with which a refined, hyper-civilized society can unravel."
—Kati Marton, author of The Chancellor: the Remarkable Odyssey of Angela Merkel
