Summary In the Labyrinth
“In the Labyrinth” is a fictionalised memoir of a German businessman who, in the aftermath of the Second World War, is arrested by American forces and handed over to the Czechoslovak authorities. Accused of Nazi collaboration, he is imprisoned for six years in Communist Czechoslovakia, without formal trial and without having committed the crimes alleged against him.
Reasons to read In the Labyrinth
“In the Labyrinth” is based on extensive conversations with the real-life protagonist, Josef Pallehner, who was mistakenly imprisoned after World War II and became lost in a bureaucratic labyrinth. The book recounts how an ordinary individual is caught in the machinery of bureaucracy and serves as a critique of Communist arbitrariness and injustice, reminiscent of Kafka’s “In the Penal Colony”.
Setting: Leopoldov (Slovakia)
Original title: In the Labyrinth
Year of publication: 1986
