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Hans Magnus Enzensberger

Hans Magnus Enzensberger (1929 – 2022) was a German author, poet, translator and editor. The Number Devil has been translated into over thirty languages and is essential reading for anyone – of any age – who has ever been mystified by mathematics.

Publications

The Number Devil

Hans Magnus Enzensberger

Translated by Michael Henry Heim

Twelve-year-old Robert hates his maths teacher: he sets his class boring problems and won’t let them use their calculators. Then in his dreams Robert meets the Number Devil, who brings the subject magically to life, illustrating with wit and charm a world in which numbers can amaze and fascinate, where maths is nothing like the dreary, difficult process that so many of us dread. The Number Devil knows how to make maths devilishly simple.

Hans Magnus Enzensberger on Granta.com

Essays & Memoir | Issue 63

Essays & Memoir | Issue 63

Coming to America

Hans Magnus Enzensberger

‘As a child in Germany I knew next to nothing about America.’ From 1998, Hans Magnus Enzensberger on the German view of America.

Essays & Memoir | Issue 42

Essays & Memoir | Issue 42

The Great Migration

Hans Magnus Enzensberger

‘For a long time there was greater anxiety in Europe about the consequences of emigration than of immigration.’ From 1992, Hans Magnus Enzensberger on migration. Translated by Martin Chalmers.

Essays & Memoir | Issue 33

Essays & Memoir | Issue 33

Europe in Ruins

Hans Magnus Enzensberger

‘At the end of the Second World War Europe was a pile of ruins, not merely in a physical sense; it seemed totally bankrupt in political and moral terms.’

Hans Magnus Enzensberger on Europe after the Second World War.

Essays & Memoir | Issue 26

Essays & Memoir | Issue 26

The Extravagance of the Italians

Hans Magnus Enzensberger

‘There are no Italians in Italy, only natives and newcomers.’ Hans Magnus Enzensberger on the small-change crisis in 1970s Italy. Translated by Martin Chalmers.