Working in the fantastic satiric tradition of Wells, Orwell, and Vonnegut, Karel Čapek chronicles the discovery of a colony of highly intelligent giant salamanders on an Indonesian island. Čapek sardonically portrays the reactions of the civilized world-from horror to skepticism, from intellectual fascination to mercantile opportunism-and the ultimate destruction from which it (and the newts) might not escape.

KAREL ČAPEK (1890–1938) is one of the great Czechoslovak writers of the twentieth century.

"One of the features of a classic is that while remaining at one with its times, it reaches out beyond them. War with the Newts fully qualifies as a classic in this sense." —Michael Henry Heim, Los Angeles Times

"Capek's work has lost nothing of its freshness and luster. . . . He is as great a delight to read today as he ever was." —New York Times Book Review

"Brilliant." —T.J. Jackson Lears, Lingua Franca