“ Without Fate ” ( Hungarian. Sorstalanság ) is a novel by Hungarian writer Imre Kertes , Nobel Prize winner in literature in 2002, published in 1975.
| No fate | |
|---|---|
| Sorstalanság | |
| Author | Imre Kertes |
| Genre | autobiographical novel |
| Original language | Hungarian |
| Original published | 1975 |
| Translator | Shimon Markish and Susan Heteni; Yuri Pavlovich Gusev |
| Publisher | |
| ISBN | |
The book tells of a Hungarian Jewish teenager who first got to Auschwitz and then to Buchenwald . The novel is semi-autobiographical in nature.
He became the first part of the trilogy, which also included the novels “Fiasco” (1988) and “Kaddish on the unborn baby” (1990) [1] .
In 1992, the book was first published in English under the name Fateless (translated in 2004 - Fatelessness ). The first Russian translation, a joint work of Shimon Markish (Geneva) and Jouzhi Heteni (Budapest), entitled “Deprivation”, was published in the Jerusalem Journal No. 15, 2003 and No. 18, 2004 (Israel; http://www.antho.net ) The translation was awarded the Milan Fust Prize of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (2002). Another translation came out in Russia in 2007 [2] .
Story
In early spring, the father of the protagonist, György Köves, is sent to a labor camp. A dinner is arranged at which relatives and close friends say goodbye to him. In early summer, György was obliged to work at an oil refinery. This suits him: he works in the company of children of his age and has a pass that allows him to be in remote areas of the city.
Once the bus, on which the workers are transported, is stopped and ordered all Jews to leave. The same is done with all subsequent buses. Then all the rounded up people are sent to work in Germany.
First, everyone is brought to Auschwitz, where they are divided into two groups, one of which is sent to the gas chamber. Others shave and disinfect. Soon, some prisoners, including the main character, were sent to Buchenwald. After the Auschwitz order, Buchenwald is perceived as a place with significantly better living conditions.
After some time, György begins to fester from uncomfortable shoes and dirt, and he ends up in the hospital, where he remains until the Allies liberate the camp.
György returns to Budapest. A journalist turns to him on a tram, tries to question about how it was in Buchenwald, and gives a business card, saying that his story is the business of the whole world, but Gyorgy throws out a business card as soon as the journalist is hidden from sight. In the house where he lived, other people now live. From neighbors he learns that his father died at Mauthausen, and his stepmother got married. After sitting with the neighbors, György goes to his mother.
Screen version
In 2005, the novel was filmed by the Hungarian filmmaker Laios Koltai . The script for the film was written by Imre Kertes himself. In the role of György Köves, the young actor Marzel Nagy starred [3] [4] .
Notes
- ↑ Imre Curtesh . gazeta.ru. Date of treatment September 6, 2013.
- ↑ In the publishing house "Text", "Without Fate" (inaccessible link) . jewish.ru. Date of treatment September 6, 2013. Archived March 4, 2016.
- ↑ Finding the Beauty in a Boy's Days of Horror . nytimes.com. Date of treatment September 6, 2013.
- ↑ The Holocaust, From a Teenage View . nytimes.com. Date of treatment September 7, 2013.