In this engaging, lively narrative, Payen masterfully presents the vast trajectory of Heideggers intellectual and personal life without flinching from disturbing elements but also without deciding for the reader what the most shocking of these might mean for an assessment of the philosophy, the man, or the intersections of the man and the thinking. What emerges is an intimate and provocative portrait of Heideggers life and legacy.Gregory Fried, Boston College
Payens volume ranks as one of the best biographies of Heidegger in any language. Among its many strengths, his reading of Heideggers anti-Semitism is thorough, judicious, and painstakingly grounded in all the available texts.Thomas Sheehan, Stanford University