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Binet's captivating debut novel follows the lives of Jozef Gik and Jan Kubis, the Slovak and the Czech responsible for the death of Reinhard Heydrich, Othe Butcher of Prague, O one of the most feared men in Nazi Germany. This item is Returnable
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About the Author:
HHhH is Laurent Binet's first novel. He lives and works in France. HHhH won the prestigious Prix Goncourt du premier roman and the Prix des Lecteurs du Livre de Poche.
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1
Gabcík—that’s his name—really did exist. Lying alone on a little iron bed, did he hear, from outside, beyond the shutters of a darkened apartment, the unmistakable creaking of the Prague tramways? I want to believe so. I know Prague well, so I can imagine the tram’s number (but perhaps it’s changed?), its route, and the place where Gabcík waits, thinking and listening. We are at the corner of Vyšehradská and Trojická. The number 18 tram (or the number 22) has stopped in front of the Botanical Gardens. We are, most important, in 1942. In The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, Milan Kundera implies that he feels a bit ashamed at having to name his characters. And although this shame is hardly perceptible in his novels, which are full of Tomášes, Tominas, and Terezas, we can intuit the obvious meaning: what could be more vulgar than to arbitrarily give—from a childish desire for verisimilitude or, at best, mere convenience—an invented name to an invented character? In my opinion, Kundera should have gone further: what could be more vulgar than an invented character?
So, Gabcík existed, and it was to this name that he answered (although not always). His story is as true as it is extraordinary. He and his comrades are, in my eyes, the authors of one of the greatest acts of resistance in human history, and without doubt the greatest of the Second World War. For a long time I have wanted to pay tribute to him. For a long time I have seen him, lying in his little room—shutters closed, window open—listening to the creak of the tram (going which way? I don’t know) that stops outside the Botanical Gardens. But if I put this image on paper, as I’m sneakily doing now, that won’t necessarily pay tribute to him. I am reducing this man to the ranks of a vulgar character and his actions to literature: an ignominious transformation, but what else can I do? I don’t want to drag this vision around with me all my life without having tried, at least, to give it some substance. I just hope that, however bright and blinding the veneer of fiction that covers this fabulous story, you will still be able to see through it to the historical reality that lies behind.
Copyright © 2009 by Éditions Grasset et Fasquelle
Translation copyright © 2012 by Sam Taylor
Gabcík—that’s his name—really did exist. Lying alone on a little iron bed, did he hear, from outside, beyond the shutters of a darkened apartment, the unmistakable creaking of the Prague tramways? I want to believe so. I know Prague well, so I can imagine the tram’s number (but perhaps it’s changed?), its route, and the place where Gabcík waits, thinking and listening. We are at the corner of Vyšehradská and Trojická. The number 18 tram (or the number 22) has stopped in front of the Botanical Gardens. We are, most important, in 1942. In The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, Milan Kundera implies that he feels a bit ashamed at having to name his characters. And although this shame is hardly perceptible in his novels, which are full of Tomášes, Tominas, and Terezas, we can intuit the obvious meaning: what could be more vulgar than to arbitrarily give—from a childish desire for verisimilitude or, at best, mere convenience—an invented name to an invented character? In my opinion, Kundera should have gone further: what could be more vulgar than an invented character?
So, Gabcík existed, and it was to this name that he answered (although not always). His story is as true as it is extraordinary. He and his comrades are, in my eyes, the authors of one of the greatest acts of resistance in human history, and without doubt the greatest of the Second World War. For a long time I have wanted to pay tribute to him. For a long time I have seen him, lying in his little room—shutters closed, window open—listening to the creak of the tram (going which way? I don’t know) that stops outside the Botanical Gardens. But if I put this image on paper, as I’m sneakily doing now, that won’t necessarily pay tribute to him. I am reducing this man to the ranks of a vulgar character and his actions to literature: an ignominious transformation, but what else can I do? I don’t want to drag this vision around with me all my life without having tried, at least, to give it some substance. I just hope that, however bright and blinding the veneer of fiction that covers this fabulous story, you will still be able to see through it to the historical reality that lies behind.
Copyright © 2009 by Éditions Grasset et Fasquelle
Translation copyright © 2012 by Sam Taylor
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- Publisherkkk
- Publication date2012
- ISBN 10 1846554799
- ISBN 13 9781846554797
- BindingHardcover
- Edition number1
- Number of pages336
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. Dust Jacket Condition: New. 1st Edition. Book condition: new. Dust jacket condition: new. 1st printing, 1st edition UK. Signed by author. Signed by Author(s). Seller Inventory # 47
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. Dust Jacket Condition: New. First Edition. A fine unread 1st impression in a fine dustwrapper, Signed by the Author on the title page. Translated from the French by Sam Taylor. 'hhhh' is printed in red on the text block fore-edge. Signed by Author(s). Seller Inventory # 009525
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. Dust Jacket Condition: New. 1st Edition. AN OUTSTANDING WORK OF THE IMAGINATION. All the characters in HHhH are real. All the events depicted are true. But alongside the nerve-shredding preparations for the attack runs another story: when you are a novelist writing about real people, how do you resist the temptation to make things up? HHhH is a panorama of the Third Reich told through the life of one outstandingly brutal man, a story of unbearable heroism and loyalty, revenge and betrayal. It is improbably entertaining and electrifyingly modern, a moving and shattering work of fiction. 'HHhH is a highly original piece of work, at once charming, moving, and gripping.' Martin Amis. 'HHhH blew me away. Binet's style fuses it all together: a neutral, journalistic honesty sustained with a fiction writer's zeal and story-telling instincts. It's one of the best historical novels I've ever come across.' Brett Easton Ellis. 'By the time I got to the last page of Binet's masterpiece, I had to close my eyes and rethink history. I'm rethinking it still.' Gary Shteyngart. Nobel Laureate, Mario Vargas Llosa, hailed the book as magnificent. unsurpassable. Something of a Greek tragedy and of the splendid thriller. SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR, and this unique edition features a striking leading edge to the text block. Language: eng Language: eng 0.0 Language: eng 0.0 Language: eng 0.0 Language: eng. Signed by Author. Seller Inventory # ABE-7568244723
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