“A splendid text, learned and diligent, but not without resourcefulness of language. It’s a scholarly work that is written like a melancholic novella.”
 — Galili Shahar, Haaretz

“A truly original work that engages the pervasive condition of melancholy facing many progressive and left-wing artists, thinkers, scholars, and political actors. The short life of Israel Zarchi becomes the vehicle by which Nitzan Lebovic interrogates the demands, implications, and surprising virtues of the melancholic in the present.”
 — Eugene Sheppard, author of Leo Strauss and the Politics of Exile: The Making of a Political Philosopher

“Through Lebovic’s gripping account we gain a sense of intimacy and a deep understanding of the Zarchi the man and Zarchi the author. ... The work is fundamentally and thoroughly interdisciplinary, moving deftly between intellectual history, literary studies, political philosophy, and psychoanalysis, to name the most important coordinates on Lebovic’s map.”
 — Na’ama Rokem, author of Prosaic Conditions: Heinrich Heine and the Spaces of Zionist Literature