Imre Kertész Book order

Imre Kertész explores the interplay between personal experience and historical narrative, particularly reflecting on his childhood in Buchenwald and Auschwitz, and life under communist Hungary. He draws parallels between National Socialism and communist oppression while discussing the initial reception of his novel Fateless, which challenged simplistic historical narratives. The dialogue with Thomas Cooper emphasizes the complexities of interpreting history and the importance of literature in preserving the memory of Holocaust victims. Kertész's insights underline the enduring impact of the Holocaust on cultural memory.

The narrative unfolds in a world where paranoia reigns, as the protagonist grapples with the unsettling realization that everyone around them could be a potential murderer. This psychological thriller delves into themes of mistrust and the fragility of human relationships, creating an atmosphere thick with tension and suspicion. As the story progresses, the line between friend and foe blurs, leading to a gripping exploration of morality and survival in a society where danger lurks in every interaction.

As readers, we are accustomed to reading stories of war and injustice from the victims’ point of view, sympathizing with their plight. In Detective Story, the tables have been turned, leaving us in the mind of a monster, as Nobel Laureate Imre Kertész plunges us into a story of the worst kind, told by a man living outside morality.Now in prison, Antonio Martens is a torturer for the secret police of a recently defunct dictatorship. He requests and is given writing materials in his cell, and what he has to recount is his involvement in the surveillance, torture, and assassination of Federigo and Enrique Salinas, a prominent father and son whose principled but passive opposition to the regime left them vulnerable to the secret police. Preying on young Enrique’s aimless life, the secret police began to position him as a subversive and then targeted his father. Once this plan was set into motion, any means were justified to reach the regime’s chosen end—the destruction of an entire liberal class.Inside Martens’s mind, we inhabit the rationalizing world of evil and see firsthand the inherent danger of inertia during times of crisis. A slim, explosive novel of justice railroaded by malevolence, Detective Story is a warning cry for our time.

Kingbitter, an editor at a publishing house on the verge of closure, believes himself to have been the closest friend of a celebrated writer and Auschwitz survivor, B, who recently committed suicide. Amongst the papers, Kingbitter finds a play entitled Liquidation that predicts the behaviour of B's ex-wife, his mistress and Kingbitter himself.

Condenses a lifetime into a story told in a single night...exhilarating for [its] creative energy World Literature

Fateless is the first English translation of a moving and disturbing novel about a Hungarian Jewish boy's experiences in German concentration camps and his attempts to reconcile himself to those experiences after the war.