War with the Newts

Working in the fantastic satiric tradition of Wells, Orwell, and Vonnegut, Karel Capek chronicles the discovery of a colony of highly intelligent giant salamanders on an Indonesian island. Capek sardonically portrays the reactions of the civilized world-from horror to skepticism, from intellectual fascination to mercantile opportunism-and the ultimate destruction from which it (and the newts) might not escape.

"One of the features of a classic is that while remaining at one with its times, it reaches out beyond them. War with the Newts fully qualifies as a classic in this sense." --Michael Henry Heim, Los Angeles Times

"Capek's work has lost nothing of its freshness and luster. . . . He is as great a delight to read today as he ever was." --New York Times Book Review

"Brilliant." --T.J. Jackson Lears, Lingua Franca