Trilogy
The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie
Published on 9. June 2022
Book
Paperback/Softback
338 pages
978-1-909585-47-8 (ISBN)
Description
Sent to a remote village for the duration of the war, two children devise physical and mental exercises to render themselves invulnerable to pain and sentiment. The Notebook distils the experience of Nazi occupation and Soviet 'liberation' during World War II into a stark fable of timeless relevance. In The Proof and The Third Lie perspectives shift and identity becomes unstable as Claus and Lucas, isolated in different countries, yearn for the restoration of their lost connection. The novels are an exploration of both the after-effects of trauma and the nature of story-telling.
Reviews / Votes
'At the heart of this acrid trilogy ... we can feel the author's slowburning rage at the wholesale erasure of certainty and continuity in the world of her childhood and adolescence. She will reassemble a shattered world on her own rigorous terms, and watch us wince and shudder in the process.' (Jonathan Keates, Times Literary Supplement) 'The Notebook is a great book, in the absolute.' (Beverley Bie Brahic, TLS 'Books of the Year') 'A stunning, brutal and beautifully written (and translated) book.' (George Szirtes) 'Both stylistically inventive and politically incisive, [The Notebook] is a book to worry readers for years.' (Eimear McBride, Financial Times) 'There is a book through which I discovered what kind of a person I really want to be: The Notebook, the first volume of Agota Kristof's trilogy.' (Slavoj Zizek) 'What happens at the end is stated simply but echoes with the cumulative force of everything that has come before, and is devastating. In its odd, memorable, unique way, The Notebook is a masterpiece.' (John Self)More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 133 mm
Width: 207 mm
Thickness: 26 mm
Weight
422 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-909585-47-8 (9781909585478)
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
Persons
Agota Kristof was born in Csikvand, Hungary, in 1935. Aged twenty-one, Kristof and her husband and four-month-old daughter fled the Soviet repression of the Hungarian Uprising to Austria and were resettled in French-speaking Switzerland. Working in a factory, Kristof slowly learned the language of her adopted country. Her first novel, The Notebook (1986), gained international recognition and was translated into forty languages. Kristof 's other work included plays and stories as well as The Proof (1988) and The Third Lie (1991), which complete the trilogy begun with The Notebook. She died in 2011.