DAS GROSSE HEFT

In Ágota Kristóf’s relentlessly harrowing novel, a pair of unnamed twins grow up in a world under a state of emergency. The nine-year-olds document their experiences in the form of essays in a “Big Notebook”. Plainly and without sentiment, they recount the brutality of a war that robbed them of their childhood, along with the consequences – displacement, foreign occupation and flight – that have left a lasting mark on them.

Their home, the “Big City”, is under constant attack. To keep the twins safe, their mother has taken them to the countryside and left them in their grandmother’s care. Known in the village as a “witch”, she puts her grandchildren to work for their food and shelter. In a community where everyone only looks out for themselves, the siblings must fight to survive, devoid of any human warmth. So they begin to adapt. Through strict training, they learn to suppress their emotions, including vulnerability and compassion: “After a while, in fact, we no longer feel anything. It’s someone else who is hurt, someone else who gets burnt, cut and feels pain. We don’t cry any more.”

Born in Hungary in 1935, Ágota Kristóf fled the Soviet troops for Switzerland in 1956. There, she first worked in a factory, went on to study, and remained until her death in 2011.

Ágota Kristóf wrote DAS GROSSE HEFT in her second language, French, developing a unique sound in which words cut like pinpricks beneath the skin. In simple sentences, she adopts a child’s perspective, making the events all the more unsettling. The novel becomes a worldwide success.