Dossier K. [a memoir by the winner of the Nobel prize for literature

The first and only memoir from the Nobel Prize-winning author, in the form of an illuminating, often funny, and often combative interview--with himself Dossier K. is Imre Kertész's response to the hasty biographies and profiles that followed his 2002 Nobel Prize for Literature--an attempt to set the record straight. The result is an extraordinary self-portrait, in which Kertész interrogates himself about the course of his own remarkable life, moving from memories of his childhood in Budapest, his imprisonment in Nazi death camps and the forged record that saved his life, his experiences as a censored journalist in postwar Hungary under successive totalitarian communist regimes, and his eventual turn to fiction, culminating in the novels--such as Fatelessness, Fiasco, and Kaddish for an Unborn Child--that have established him as one of the most powerful, unsentimental, and imaginatively daring writers of our time. In this wide-ranging and provocative book, Kertész continues to delve into the questions that have long occupied him: the legacy of the Holocaust, the distinctions drawn between fiction and reality, and what he calls "that wonderful burden of being responsible for oneself." From the Trade Paperback edition.

The first and only memoir from the Nobel Prize-winning author, in the form of an illuminating, often funny, and often combative interview—conducted by the author of himself.

Dossier K is Imre Kertész’s response to the hasty biographies and profiles that followed his 2002 Nobel Prize, an attempt to set the record straight. But, as befits Kertész, it’s a beautifully roundabout way of going straight: Kertész faces and interrogates himself about the issues and events that have long preoccupied him, while also dealing with the questions that really annoy him (such as, “Is your work autobiographical?”).

The result is an extraordinary self-portrait, in which Kertész recounts memories of his childhood in Budapest; the years that lead up to the Second World War and his first encounters with anti-Semitism; the incredible forged record of his death in Buchenwald that may in fact have saved his life; his release from the camps and his return to his family; Hungary’s Rákosi and Kádár regimes and the terror, hypocrisy, and absurdity they entailed; his thoughts about what other writers have written about the Holocaust; his two marriages; and his long development as a writer.

This is a surprising and provocative autobiography that delves into questions about the legacy of the Holocaust, fiction and reality, and what Kertész calls “the wonderful burden of being responsible for yourself.

This book came about through a conversation the author had with his friend Zoltan Hafner over the course of 2003 and 2004. The first and only memoir from the Nobel Prize-winning author, in the form of an illuminating, often funny, and often combative interview -- with himself, this book is Imre Kertesz's response to the hasty biographies and profiles that followed his 2002 Nobel Prize for Literature--an attempt to set the record straight. The result is an extraordinary self-portrait, in which Kertesz interrogates himself about the course of his own remarkable life, moving from memories of his childhood in Budapest, his imprisonment in Nazi death camps and the forged record that saved his life, his experiences as a censored journalist in postwar Hungary under successive totalitarian communist regimes, and his eventual turn to fiction, culminating in the novels--such as "Fatelessness," "Fiasco," and "Kaddish for an Unborn Child"--that have established him as one of the most powerful, unsentimental, and imaginatively daring writers of our time. In this wide-ranging and provocative book, Kertesz continues to delve into the questions that have long occupied him: the legacy of the Holocaust, the distinctions drawn between fiction and reality, and what he calls "that wonderful burden of being responsible for oneself The first and only memoir from the Nobel Prize--winning author, in the form of an illuminating, often funny, and often combative interview--with himself Dossier K. is Imre Kert?sz's response to the hasty biographies and profiles that followed his 2002 Nobel Prize for Literature--an attempt to set the record straight. The result is an extraordinary self-portrait, in which Kert?sz interrogates himself about the course of his own remarkable life, moving from memories of his childhood in Budapest, his imprisonment in Nazi death camps and the forged record that saved his life, his experiences as a censored journalist in postwar Hungary under successive totalitarian communist regimes, and his eventual turn to fiction, culminating in the novels--such as Fatelessness , Fiasco , and Kaddish for an Unborn Child --that have established him as one of the most powerful, unsentimental, and imaginatively daring writers of our time. In this wide-ranging and provocative book, Kert?sz continues to delve into the questions that have long occupied him: the legacy of the Holocaust, the distinctions drawn between fiction and reality, and what he calls "that wonderful burden of being responsible for oneself." From the Trade Paperback edition This book came about through a conversation the author had with his friend and editor, Zoltán Hafner, over the course of 2003 and 2004