Elias Canetti (; Bulgarian: Елиас Канети; 25 July 1905 – 14 August 1994) was a German-language author, born in Ruse, Bulgaria to a merchant family. They moved to Manchester, England, but his father died in 1912, and his mother took her three sons back to the continent. They settled in Vienna.
Canetti moved to England in 1938 after the Anschluss to escape Nazi persecution. He became a British citizen in 1952. He is known as a modernist novelist, playwright, memoirist, and non-fiction writer. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1981, "for writings marked by a broad outlook, a wealth of ideas and artistic power". He is noted for his non-fiction book Crowds and Power, among other works.
Karlsbad i 1907: I Elias Canettis tidligste erindring, Den reddede tunge, bliver han på barnepigens arm båret ud ad en dør. Frem træder en mand og siger: "Vis mig tungen!" Manden trækker barnets tunge frem og fører bladet af en lommekniv tæt hen til den. Scenen gentages igen og igen.
Barnet sladrer ikke til forældrene. Truslen mod tungen forhindrer alligevel ikke, at pigen og mandens forhold opdages, og pigen sendes bort. Elias Canettis tunge blev reddet!
Episoder af denne stærkt ladede, usædvanlige slags fylder nobelpristageren Elias Canetti erindringer fra en utroligt omskiftelig barndom og ungdom i Bulgarien, England, Østrig og Schweiz i århundredets første tyve år.
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