biography
pronunciation:
[kertesh]
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1929– )
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| biography:
| Writer, born in Budapest, Hungary. Of Jewish descent, in 1944 he was deported to Auschwitz and then Buchenwald, where he was liberated in 1945. From 1948 he worked for a Budapest newspaper, but was dismissed in 1951 when it adopted the party line. After two years of military service he became a translator of German authors and an independent writer. His first novel, Sorstalanság (1975, trans Fateless, 1992), based on his experiences in the concentration camps, was followed by A kudarc (1988, trans title Fiasco) and Kaddis a meg nem születetett gyermekért (1990, trans Kaddish for a Child not Born, 1997). Other works include A nyomkereso (1977, trans title, The Pathfinder), Az angol labogó (1991, trans title The English Flag), a diary in fictional form, Gályanapló (1992, trans title Galley Diary), and Valaki más: a változás krónikája (1997, trans title I - Another: Chronicle of a Metamorphosis). Collections of essays include A holocaust mint kultúra (1993, trans title The Holocaust as Culture), A gondolatnyi csend, amíg kivégzóoztag újratölt (1998, Moments of Silence while the Execution Squad Reloads), and A számuzött nyelv (2001, The Exiled Language). He was awarded the 2002 Nobel Prize for Literature for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history. |
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