The first word in this mesmerizing novel by the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature is “No.” It is how the novel’s narrator, a middle-aged Hungarian-Jewish writer, answers an acquaintance who asks him if he has a child. It is the answer he gave his wife (now ex-wife) years earlier when she told him that she wanted one. The loss, longing and regret that haunt the years between those two “no”s give rise to one of the most eloquent meditations ever written on the Holocaust.

As Kertesz’s narrator addresses the child he couldn’t bear to bring into the world he ushers readers into the labyrinth of his consciousness, dramatizing the paradoxes attendant on surviving the catastrophe of Auschwitz. Kaddish for the Unborn Child is a work of staggering power, lit by flashes of perverse wit and fueled by the energy of its wholly original voice.

Translated by Tim Wilkinson

凯尔泰斯·伊姆雷（KerteszImre），匈牙利作家。凯尔泰斯1929年出生在匈牙利首都布达佩斯一个犹太人家庭。1944年，他被关进了德国纳粹分子设在波兰的奥斯威辛集中营，后来又被转移到德国境内的布痕瓦尔德集中营，1948年返回匈牙利。他在报社工作过，并长期从事文学翻译工作，主要翻译德国作家的作品，这对他后来的文学创作产生了很大的影响。他曾荣获过包括德国布兰登堡文学奖在内的多项国际文学奖。1975年开始发表长篇文学作品。处女作《无命运的人生》描写了他在纳粹集中营的经历，但这部自传体小说发表后并没有引起多大反响。直到1988年和1990年《无命运的人生》的两部续篇《惨败》和《给未出生的孩子做安息祷告》发表之后，他才为世界所了解，并开始在世界文坛上占有一席之地。

作者作品:

·《无命运的人生》

·《给未出生的孩子做安息祷告》

·《惨败》