Hans Keilson

An extraordinary and harrowing tale, 'Comedy in a Minor Key' examines the dark and desperate humour that co-exists with moments of terror, in a work deeply reminiscent of 'The Diary of Anne Frank'."

Comedy in a Minor Key

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.

A Novel

The Death of the Adversary

Follows Hans Selderson, a German Jew and decorated World War I veteran living in German and working as a textile merchant, and his family as they encounter troubles in the aftermath of the war. Based on the author's life.

Life Goes On

Damion Searls

Traces the struggles of a Dutch couple who shelter a Jewish man during the Nazi occupation and dispose of his body when he dies of pneumonia.

’Modstanderens død’ blev skrevet, mens Hans Keilson levede i skjul under anden verdenskrig, og handler om en ung jødisk mands ambivalente fascination af en navnløs ’modstander’, som han ser vokse sig stadig mere magtfuld i 1930’ernes Tyskland. Det er en dybdeborende og skræmmende fortælling, ikke alene i sin afdækning af den voksende trussel fra Hitler og den politik, han står for, men også i jødens fortvivlede forsøg på at finde mening og logik i noget massivt meningsløst. ”Hans Keilson er et geni. Læs ham og sæt ham, som jeg har gjort, på listen over verdens største forfattere.” New York Times

Modstanderens død

My enemy - I shall refer to him as B. - entered my life about twenty years ago. At that time I had only a very vague idea of what it meant to be someone's enemy; still less did I realise what it was to have an enemy. One has to mature gradually towards one's enemy as towards one's best friend. 1930s Germany; the shadow of Nazism looms. Pictures of the new dictator, 'B.', fill magazines and newspapers. Our hero is ten when his world begins to change dramatically. Suddenly, the other children won't let him join in their games. Later, he is refused a job on a shop-floor. Later still, he hears youths boasting of an attack on a Jewish cemetery. Both hypnotised and horrified by his enemy, our hero chronicles the fear, anger and defiance of everyday life under tyranny. Written while Hans Keilson was in hiding during World War II, this novel is a powerful account of what he outlived. Painful, trenchant and streaked with dark humour The Death of the Adversary is a rediscovered masterpiece.

Trauma und Erinnern : Hans Keilson zu Ehren

"Gedenk und vergiss, im Abschaum der Geschichte--"

The first English-language translation of the memoirs of Hans Keilson, one of Europe’s most masterful and remarkable writers In this unique work, which was composed in the 1990s and only recently rediscovered, Keilson brings back a bygone era in snapshots from a life spanning one hundred years. The external stations of this life — his youth in Brandenburg, his student years and the fast life in Berlin, his exile in Holland, his survival in hiding, and the loss of his parents — are framed by economic crisis, anti-Semitism, and war, but also by friendship, music, and hope. Hans Keilson reveals these themes in gentle, quizzical reflections and fragments, producing an unforgettable portrait of his time. The memoir is followed by a beguiling conversation about Keilson’s one hundred years of living and writing. It provides an incomparable insight into the man whom The New York Times recently hailed as ‘one of the world’s very greatest writers’.

Saso Dzeroski

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