Leonid Andreyev’s work continues to spark debate among critics. For some, his writings represent ‘exemplary depravity’; others discern in them ‘a powerful breath of talent.’ But what was the writer truly like—a cold cynic or a sensitive, vulnerable soul? Why, despite being a patriot, did he reject the Revolution? Why did he attempt suicide? The answers lie in this new biography.

During World War Two, 131 German cities and towns were targeted by Allied bombs, a good number almost entirely flattened. Six hundred thousand German civilians died—a figure twice that of all American war casualties. Seven and a half million Germans were left homeless. Given the astonishing scope of the devastation, W. G. Sebald asks, why does the subject occupy so little space in Germany’s...