Showing results by author "Hans Keilson"

Comedy in a Minor Key tells the story of Wim and Marie, a Dutch couple who first hide a Jew they know as Nico, then must dispose of his body when he dies of pneumonia. This novella, first published in 1947 and now translated into English for the first time, shows Hans Keilson at his best: deeply ironic, penetrating, sympathetic, and brilliantly modern, an heir to Joseph Roth and Franz Kafka.

Written while Hans Keilson was in hiding during World War II, The Death of the Adversary is the self-portrait of a young man helplessly fascinated by an unnamed “adversary” whom he watches rise to power in 1930s Germany. It is a tale of horror, not only in its evocation of Hitler’s gathering menace but also in its hero’s desperate attempt to discover logic where none exists. A psychological fable as wry and haunting as Badenheim 1939, The Death of the Adversary is a lost classic of modern fiction.

Nico är en judisk man som lever gömd hos paret Wim och Marie i Holland under den tyska ockupationen. Hittills har ingen märkt något men när Nico plötsligt blir sjuk och sedan dör av lunginflammation uppstår ett problem: hur ska Wim och Marie göra sig av med kroppen? Mitt i ockupationens fruktansvärda allvar blir deras vedermödor nästan komiska. Och i ett av världshistoriens värsta epoker kan en komedi lätt förvandlas till tragedi.