The Assignment
or, On the Observing of the Observer of the Observers
Published on 15. October 2008
Book
Paperback/Softback
152 pages
978-0-226-17446-4 (ISBN)
Description
In Friedrich Durrenmatt's experimental thriller "The Assignment", the wife of a psychiatrist has been raped and killed near a desert ruin in North Africa. Her husband hires a woman named F. to reconstruct the unsolved crime in a documentary film. F. is soon thrust into a paranoid world of international espionage where everyone is watched - including the watchers. After discovering a recent photograph of the supposed murder victim happily reunited with her husband, F. becomes trapped in an apocalyptic landscape riddled with political intrigue, crimes of mistaken identity, and terrorism.F.'s labyrinthine quest for the truth is Durrenmatt's fictionalized warning against the dangers of a technologically advanced society that turns everyday life into one of constant scrutiny. Joel Agee's elegant translation will introduce a generation of English-speaking readers to a master of language, suspense, and dystopia.
Reviews / Votes
"The Assignment is a parable of hell for an age consumed by images." - New York Times Book Review "His most ambitious book.... Dark and devious.... Almost obsessively drawn to mankind's most fiendish crimes." - Chicago Tribune "A tour de force.... Mesmerizing." - Village Voice"More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Chicago
United States
Publishing group
The University of Chicago Press
Dimensions
Height: 21 mm
Width: 14 mm
Thickness: 1 mm
Weight
227 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-226-17446-4 (9780226174464)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
02/2017
1st Edition
University of Chicago Press
€13.80
Available for download
Persons
Friedrich Durrenmatt (1921-90) is the author of several books published by the University of Chicago Press, including The Pledge. Joel Agee has translated numerous German authors into English, including Heinrich von Kleist, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Elias Canetti. In 2005 he received the Modern Language Association's Lois Roth Award for his translation of Hans Erich Nossack's The End: Hamburg 1943.