Kaddish For An Unborn Child by Imre Kertesz
The first word of this haunting novel is 'no'. It is how the narrator, a middle-aged Hungarian Jewish writer, answers an acquaintance who asks if he has a child and it is how he answered his, now ex-, wife when she told him she wanted a baby. The loss, longing, and regret that haunt the years between those two 'no's' give rise to one of the most eloquent meditations ever written on the Holocaust. As Kertész's narrator addresses the child he couldn't bear to bring into the world, he takes readers on a mesmerising, lyrical journey through his life, from his childhood to Auschwitz to his failed marriage.
"Condenses a lifetime into a story told in a single night..exhilarating for [its] creative energy" * World Literature *
"Stunning... resembles such other memorably declamatory fictions as Camus' The Fall and Dostoyevsky's Notes from Underground" * Kirkus Reviews *
"While the average reader cannot pretend truly to understand the reality of those who suffered in concentration camps, Kertész draws us one step closer" * Observer *
"For taking us somewhere no other writer has, Kertész fully deserved his Nobel Prize" * Independent *
"Tim Wilkinson is a seriously good translator...I may have given the impression that this is harrowing, and it is; but it has its moments of great, consoling insight, is about far more than just the Holocaust and in its own haunting way provides comfort for the afflicted" -- Nicholas Lezard * Guardian *
"Stunning... resembles such other memorably declamatory fictions as Camus' The Fall and Dostoyevsky's Notes from Underground" * Kirkus Reviews *
"While the average reader cannot pretend truly to understand the reality of those who suffered in concentration camps, Kertész draws us one step closer" * Observer *
"For taking us somewhere no other writer has, Kertész fully deserved his Nobel Prize" * Independent *
"Tim Wilkinson is a seriously good translator...I may have given the impression that this is harrowing, and it is; but it has its moments of great, consoling insight, is about far more than just the Holocaust and in its own haunting way provides comfort for the afflicted" -- Nicholas Lezard * Guardian *
Imre Kertész was born in 1929 in Budapest. As a youth, he was imprisoned in Auschwitz and later in Buchenwald. He worked as a journalist and playwright before publishing Fateless, his first novel, in 1975. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2002.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780099548935 |
| ISBN 10 | 0099548933 |
| Title | Kaddish For An Unborn Child |
| Author | Imre Kertesz |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Vintage Publishing |
| Year published | 2010-09-02 |
| Number of pages | 128 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |