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. Imre Kertész died in Budapest in March 2016

"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, Kertesz draws us one step closer" Observer "For taking us somewhere no other writer has, Kertesz 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. Imre Kertész died in Budapest in March 2016

"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, Kertesz draws us one step closer" Observer "For taking us somewhere no other writer has, Kertesz 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