Liquidation

With this savagely lyrical and suspenseful new novel, the Nobel Prize-winning author of Fatelessness traces the echoes of two catastrophes – the Holocaust and communism – in the consciousness of contemporary Eastern Europe. Shortly after the fall of communism, B., a writer of high reputation, commits suicide. Among his effects his friend Kingsbitter finds a play that eerily foretells events after his death. Why did B. – who was born at Auschwitz and miraculously survived – take his life? How was he able to predict the future? As Kingsbitter searches for the answers to those questions – and for the novel he is convinced lies hidden among his friend’s papers – Liquidation becomes an inquest into the haunted secret life of a generation. The result is moving and revelatory – further evidence that Imre Kertész is one of Europe’s most electrifying writers.