Summary of Fatelessness
“Fatelessness” tells the haunting story of a teenage boy from Budapest (Hungary) who, despite being Jewish does not feel so, and ends up in the concentration camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau (Poland). Upon arrival, he lies about his age, thus escaping death by being selected for forced labour. The novel describes the brutal living conditions in the camp and the lack of solidarity from other Jews who consider him not Jewish enough. He is transferred to Buchenwald (Germany) and then to a factory in Zeitz (Germany) but survives and eventually returns to Budapest.
Reasons to read Fatelessness
“Fatelessness” is a chronicle of life in the Nazi concentration camps, told in an unemotional tone by a detached but curious young boy. It is the first part of a trilogy, followed by “Fiasco” and “Kaddish for an Unborn Child”. Imre Kertész, the author of this Holocaust novel, was a Hungarian novelist and winner of the Nobel Prize for literature in 2002. He survived the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps at age 15, yet he has always insisted that his novel is not autobiographical.
Setting: Auschwitz (Poland); Buchenwald, Zeitz (Germany); Budapest (Hungary)
Original title: Sorstalanság
Year of publication: 1975
Nr of pages: 272
