
Fateless
Imre Kertesz(Author)
Vintage (Publisher)
Published on 27. April 2006
Book
Paperback/Softback
272 pages
978-0-09-950252-4 (ISBN)
Description
Gyuri, a fourteen-year-old Hungarian Jew, gets the day off school to witness his father signing over the family timber business to the firm's bookkeeper - his final business transaction before being sent to a labour camp. Two months after saying goodbye to his father, Gyuri finds himself assigned to a 'permanent workplace', but within a fortnight he is unexpectedly pulled off a bus and detained without explanation. This is the start of his journey to Auschwitz.
On his arrival Gyuri finds that he is unable to identify with other Jews, and in turn is rejected by them. An outsider among his own people, his estrangement makes him a preternaturally acute observer, dogmatically insisting on making sense of everything he witnesses.
On his arrival Gyuri finds that he is unable to identify with other Jews, and in turn is rejected by them. An outsider among his own people, his estrangement makes him a preternaturally acute observer, dogmatically insisting on making sense of everything he witnesses.
Reviews / Votes
"Moving and numbing...a very great novel - Irish Times" "Remarkable...an original and chilling quality -New York Review of Books" "[T]his work...ought to stand beside Primo Levi's If This is a Man - The Times" "Extraordinary - Observer" "Should be savoured slowly . . . Only through exploring its subtlety and detail will the reader come to appreciate such an ornate and honest testimony to the human spirit" * Washington Times *More details
Edition
Film Tie-In
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Vintage Publishing
Edition type
Media tie-in
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 129 mm
Thickness: 17 mm
Weight
192 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-09-950252-4 (9780099502524)
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

Person
Imre Kertesz, who was born in 1929 and imprisoned in Auschwitz as a youth, worked as a journalist and playwright before publishing Fateless, his first novel, in 1975. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2002. He lives in Budapest.