Chasing the King of Hearts
Hanna Krall author Philip Boehm translator
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Peirene Press Ltd
Published:25th Sep '13
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The internationally acclaimed Polish bestseller about the Holocaust, now for the first time in English. A remarkable true story of love and survival. The Warsaw Ghetto 1942: When Izolda's husband, Shayek, is imprisoned, she sets out to release him. She changes her name, her hair, her religion. Eventually she is captured and deported to Auschwitz. But even there, she trusts that her love will save them both. -- Why Peirene chose to publish this book: 'This is a beautiful love story but also an incredible account of one woman's quest to be heard. Told with astounding simplicity, the book recreates the Holocaust not as an historical event but as a terrifying, shared, experience. I am amazed - and honoured - that it was left to Peirene to publish this book for the first time in English.' Meike Ziervogel, Publisher
'A spare, startling tale of love and survival.' Justine Jordan, GUARDIAN ------ 'This strange unsettling novel ... is a remarkable find... The style is bluntly simple, like the affectless telling of a fable. The reader is held at a distance by a tone that is so studiedly neutral as to be almost jaunty, yet because it is relating the most appalling atrocities it becomes the more affecting.' David Mills, SUNDAY TIMES ------ 'Krall has created an elegant, nuanced book about choice, consequences, identity and guilt ... We have come slowly to the Central European and Germans - Hans Fallada, Joseph Roth, Ryszard Kapuscinski, all originally journalists like Krall - and we have missed so much.' Roger Boyes, THE TIMES ------ 'An arresting style that rises in remarkable fashion to the challenge such a history poses to any narrator, combining steely lyricism with a thriller's tension.' Marek Kohn, INDEPENDENT ------ 'Chasing the King of Hearts is not only a love story and a Holocaust novel. Its deep and intimate inquiry is the mystery of personality - in other words, spiritual survival in a fateless universe ... You now have in your hands a masterpiece.' Kapka Kassabova, GUARDIAN ------ 'Powerful in its raw simplicity and deeply affecting in its emotional stoicism ... An unforgettable and unparalleled addition to the classy stable of Peirene Press books.' Pam Norfolk, LANCASHIRE EVENING POST
- Winner of English PEN Writers in Translation Award 2013
ISBN: 9781908670106
Dimensions: 190mm x 125mm x 15mm
Weight: unknown
176 pages