A Novel
by Hans Keilson
Paperback. 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 Hitlers gathering menace but also in its heros 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.
"Starred Review. A novel of psychological devastation, where the unthinkable and unspeakable exist offstage." - Kirkus Reviews
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Born in Berlin in 1909, Hans Keilson published his first novel in 1934. During World War II he joined the Dutch resistance. Later, as a psychoanalyst, he pioneered the treatment of war trauma in children. In 2008 he received the Die Welt Literature Prize. He lives with his wife in Bussum, near Amsterdam.
The low brow and the high brow
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