General Information

Uniform Title

Bienveillantes.

Author/Creator

Littell, Jonathan, 1967-

Language

English.

Published

New York : Harper, c2009.

Physical Description

983 p. ; 24 cm.

Contributors

Contributor

Mandell, Charlotte (translator)

Contents/Summary

Summary

""Oh my human brothers, let me tell you how it happened." So begins the chilling fictional memoir of Dr. Maximilien Aue, a former Nazi officer who has reinvented himself, many years after the war, as a middle-class family man and factory owner in France." "Max is an intellectual steeped in philosophy, literature, and classical music. He is also a cold-blooded assassin and the consummate bureaucrat. Through the eyes of this cultivated yet monstrous man, we experience in disturbingly precise detail the horrors of the Second World War and the Nazi genocide of the Jews. During the period from June 1941 through April 1945, Max is posted to Poland, the Ukraine, and the Caucasus; he is present at the Battle of Stalingrad and at Auschwitz; and he lives through the chaos of the final days of the Nazi regime in Berlin. Although Max is a totally imagined character, his world is peopled by real historical figures, such as Eichmann, Himmler, Goring, Speer, Heyrich, Hoss, and Hitler himself." "A supreme historical epic and a haunting work of fiction, Jonathan Littell's masterpiece is intense, hallucinatory, and utterly original. Published to impressive critical acclaim in France in 2006, it went on to win the Prix Goncourt, that country's most prestigious literary award, and sparked a broad range of responses and questions from readers: How does fiction deal with the nature of human evil? How should a novel encompass the Holocaust? At what point do history and fiction come together and where do they separate?"--BOOK JACKET.

Subjects

Subject

Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter-Partei. Schutzstaffel > Fiction.

Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter-Partei. Einsatzgruppen des Sicherheitsdienstes und der Sicherheitspolizei > Fiction.

Nazis > Fiction.

World War, 1939-1945 > Atrocities > Fiction.

Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) > Fiction.

Bisexual men > Germany > Fiction.

Genre

Historical fiction.

Bibliographic Information

Responsibility

Jonathan Littell ; translated by Charlotte Mandell.

Awards

Prix Goncourt, 2006.

Grand Prix du roman, 2006.

ISBN

9780061353451

0061353450

Holdings

Item Type	Current Location	Collection	Call Number	Volume Info	Shelving Location	Public Note
Book	OSA Archivum Library	Reference collection	843/.92 LIT		Reference	-

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