Fiasco

Imre Kertész · 1929–2016 · Hungary

Originally A kudarc (Hungarian)

Why it matters

An aging writer struggles to write, then finally buries, a second novel about Köves, a camp survivor turned invisible cog inside Communist Hungary's factories and committees. The middle panel of Kertész's autobiographical trilogy, turning Fatelessness's flat irony on peacetime totalitarianism.

At a glance

A digressive framing essay gives way to a dense embedded novel; the most formally demanding book of the trilogy.