A penetrating study of ordinary people resisting the Nazi occupation—and, true to its title, a dark comedy of wartime manners—Comedy in a Minor Key tells the story of Wim and Marie, a Dutch couple who first hide a Jew they know as Nico, then must dispose of his body when he dies of pneumonia. This novella, first published in 1947 and now translated into English for the first time, shows Hans Keilson at his best: deeply ironic, penetrating, sympathetic, and brilliantly modern, an heir to Joseph Roth and Franz Kafka. In 2008, when Keilson received Germany’s prestigious Welt Literature Prize, the citation praised his work for exploring “the destructive impulse at work in the twentieth century, down to its deepest psychological and spiritual ramifications.” Published to celebrate Keilson’s hundredth birthday, Comedy in a Minor Key—and The Death of the Adversary, reissued in paperback—will introduce American readers to a forgotten classic author, a witness to World War II and a sophisticated storyteller whose books remain as fresh as when they first came to light.

Comedy in a Minor Key: A Novel

Literature & Fiction

Keilson, Hans

Literary

Farrar. Straus and Giroux

Written while Hans Keilson was in hiding during World War II, The Death of the Adversary is the self-portrait of a young man helplessly fascinated by an unnamed "adversary" whom he watches rise to power in 1930s Germany. It is a tale of horror, not only in its evocation of Hitler's gathering menace but also in its hero's desperate attempt to discover logic where none exists. A psychological fable as wry and haunting as Badenheim 1939, The Death of the Adversary is a lost classic of modern fiction.

The Death of the Adversary: A Novel

Published when the author was just twenty-three, Life Goes On was Hans Keilson's literary debut, an extraordinary autobiographical novel that paints a dark yet illuminating portrait of Germany between the world wars. It is the story of Herr Seldersen―a Jewish store owner modeled on Keilson's father, a textile merchant and decorated World War I veteran―along with his wife and son, Albrecht, and the troubles they encounter as the German economy collapses and politics turn rancid.
The book was banned by the Nazis in 1934. Shortly afterward, following his editor's advice, Keilson emigrated to the Netherlands, where he would spend the rest of his life.
Life Goes On is an essential volume for readers of Keilson's later work. At the age of one hundred, with his one copy of the first edition of Life Goes On in hand, Keilson told The New York Times that he would love to see his first novel reissued, and translated as well. "Then you would have my whole biography," he told them. He died at the age of one hundred and one.

Life Goes On: A Novel

[1944 Diary] is a deeply personal account, made even more remarkable that it was written during World War II and the horrors of the Holocaust . . . A moving and fascinating read." ―Library Journal
In 2010, FSG published two novels by the German- Jewish writer Hans Keilson: Comedy in a Minor Key―written in 1944 while Keilson was in hiding in the Netherlands, first published in German in 1947, and never before in English―and The Death of the Adversary, begun in 1944 and published in 1959, also in German. With their Chekhovian sympathy for perpetrators and bystanders as well as for victims and resisters, Keilson’s novels were, as Francine Prose said on the front page of The New York Times Book Review, “masterpieces” by “a genius” on her list of “the world’s very greatest writers.” Keilson was one hundred years old, alive and well and able to enjoy his belated fame.
1944 Diary, rediscovered among Keilson’s papers shortly after his death, covers nine months he spent in hiding in Delft with members of a Dutch resistance group, having an affair with a younger Jewish woman in hiding a few blocks away and striving to make a moral and artistic life for himself as the war and the Holocaust raged around him. For readers familiar with Keilson’s novels as well as those new to his work, this diary is an incomparable spiritual X-ray of the mind and heart behind the art: a record of survival and creativity in what Keilson called “the most critical year of my life.”
Offering further insight into Keilson are the sonnets he wrote for his lover, Hanna Sanders, which appear in translation at the back of this volume.

1944 Diary

Biographies & Memoirs

Community & Culture

"[1944 Diary] is a deeply personal account, made even more remarkable that it was written during World War II and the horrors of the Holocaust . . . A moving and fascinating read." ―Library Journal
In 2010, Farrar, Straus and Giroux published two novels by the German-Jewish writer Hans Keilson: Comedy in a Minor Key―written in 1944 while Keilson was in hiding in the Netherlands, first published in German in 1947, and never before in English―and The Death of the Adversary, begun in 1944 and published in 1959, also in German. With their Chekhovian sympathy for perpetrators and bystanders as well as for victims and resisters, Keilson’s novels were, as Francine Prose said on the front page of The New York Times Book Review, “masterpieces” by “a genius” on her list of “the world’s very greatest writers.” Keilson was one hundred years old, alive and well and able to enjoy his belated fame.
1944 Diary, rediscovered among Keilson’s papers shortly after his death, covers nine months he spent in hiding in Delft with members of a Dutch resistance group, having an affair with a younger Jewish woman in hiding a few blocks away and striving to make a moral and artistic life for himself as the war and the Holocaust raged around him. For readers familiar with Keilson’s novels as well as those new to his work, this diary is an incomparable spiritual X-ray of the mind and heart behind the art: a record of survival and creativity in what Keilson called “the most critical year of my life.”
Offering further insight into Keilson are the sonnets he wrote for his lover, Hanna Sanders, which appear in translation at the back of this volume.

Hans Keilsons erzählerisches Werk entwirft Porträts, Psychogramme und Bilder aus der Zeit der späten Weimarer Republik, des zerstörerischen Nationalsozialismus und des Exils. Keilson führt seine Figuren durch die dunkelsten Jahre des 20. Jahrhunderts und verzichtet dabei auf eine polarisierende Schwarz-Weiß-Malerei. Die Grenze zwischen Gut und Böse, zwischen Täter und Opfer ist hier keine präzise Linie, sondern ein diffuser Bereich, an dem sich die Figuren dieser Romane und Erzählungen entlangtasten müssen. Dass sie dabei weder ihren Humor noch ihre Menschlichkeit verlieren, ist Ausdruck eines nachhaltigen Widerstands gegen äußere Not und Barbarei. 
Die Werkausgabe beinhaltet die Romane ›Das Leben geht weiter‹ und ›Der Tod des Widersachers‹ sowie die Erzählungen ›Komödie in Moll‹ und ›Dissonanzenquartett‹. 
Während sich der junge Hans Keilson hauptsächlich als Erzähler hervortat, stehen in seinem Spätwerk die Gedichte und Essays im Zentrum. ›Sprachwurzellos‹ ist nicht nur der Titel seiner bekannten Gedichtsammlung, es ist gleichsam die Bezeichnung für eine existentielle Erfahrung, um die das Spätwerk Keilsons kreist. Wie kaum ein anderer Autor hat er auch in seinen aktuellsten Texten die seelischen, politischen und kulturellen Folgen der NS-Zeit analysiert und sprachlich vergegenwärtigt; ein literarisches Engagement, das bis zuletzt anhielt. 
Neben der bereits erwähnten Gedichtsammlung enthält die Werkausgabe die unter dem Titel ›Wohin die Sprache nicht reicht‹ publizierten Essays sowie verstreute, teilweise bisher unveröffentlichte Gedichte und Schriften. 
Inhaltsverzeichnis 
Ein großer Dichter in seiner Prosa, ein hellsichtiger Analytiker in seiner Dichtung. Das bewegende Werk Hans Keilsons kann zum ersten Mal in einer Gesamtschau besichtigt werden. 
›Romane und Erzählungen‹: Das Leben geht weiter, Der Tod des Widersachers, Komödie in Moll, Dissonanzen-Quartett 
›Gedichte und Essays‹: Sprachwurzellos, Einer Träumenden, Wohin die Sprache nicht reicht, verstreute Texte.

Werke in zwei Banden (German Edition)

S. Fischer Verlag GmbH

Der Tod des Widersachers (Fischer Taschenbücher Allgemeine Reihe)

FISCHER Taschenbuch

Das Leben geht weiter (Fischer Taschenbücher Allgemeine Reihe)

Contemporary

In de ban van de tegenstander (Rainbow pocketboeken) (Dutch Edition)

Rainbow BV

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Keilson, Hans. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Keilson, Hans

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Keilson, Hans. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Comedy in a Minor Key: A Novel

The Death of the Adversary: A Novel

Life Goes On: A Novel

Comedy in a Minor Key: A Novel

1944 Diary

1944 Diary

Werke in zwei Banden (German Edition)

Der Tod des Widersachers (Fischer Taschenbücher Allgemeine Reihe)

Das Leben geht weiter (Fischer Taschenbücher Allgemeine Reihe)

In de ban van de tegenstander (Rainbow pocketboeken) (Dutch Edition)