"Condenses a lifetime into a story told in a single night . . . exhilarating for [its] creative energy." –
World Literature "In his writing Imre Kertesz explores the possibility of continuing to live and think as an individual in an era in which the subjection of human beings to social forces has become increasingly complete. upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history." –The Swedish Academy, awarding the Nobel Prize in Literature 2002
"Disturbing yet lyrical . . . a seamless burst of introspection that is painful in its intensity and despair." –
Library Journal (starred review)
"Stunning . . . resembles such other memorably declamatory fictions as Camus'
The Fall and Dostoyevsky's
Notes from Underground." –
Kirkus Reviews