Description

Sent to a remote village to live with their grandmother, twins Claus and Lucas devise physical and mental exercises to render themselves invulnerable to the ongoing horrors of war and living under a totalitarian regime. When their bond is tested, their collective ‘we’ shatters and the boys become isolated in different countries. Lucas is challenged to prove his identity and that of his missing brother, a defector to ‘the other side’.

Kristof’s haunting and unforgettable masterpiece has been an international phenomenon ever since its first publication in French 40 years ago. Distilling the brutally fracturing effects of war and displacement onto identity and memory, and our need for stories in our search for unity and meaning, The Notebook Trilogy is stark fable of timeless relevance.

Publisher Review

Brutal, laconic, haunting ... it argues for the necessity of stories in the midst of tragedy -- Ocean Vuong A book through which I discovered what kind of a person I really want to be ... awoke in me a cold and cruel passion -- Slavoj Zizek A great book, in the absolute * TLS * Both stylistically inventive and politically incisive -- Eimear McBride A stunning, brutal and beautifully written (and translated) book -- George Szirtes A dark study of the human psyche * The New York Times Book Review * Kristof's sentences are like . . . skeletons, commemorations of indescribable sadness that have been meticulously scrubbed of gore and gristle * New Yorker * Closing this chillingly unsentimental novel, I felt that it had contrived to say absolutely everything about the Second World War and its aftermath in Central Europe * Sunday Times * A haunting, harrowing tale that lingers in the imagination long after you've turned the last page * The Washington Post * An almost lyrical intensity . . . fierce and disturbing * The New York Times *