The Notebook Trilogy: The Notebook, the Proof, the Third Lie

“A haunting, harrowing tale that lingers in the imagination long after you’ve turned the last page.”—Washington Post Book World

A “fierce and disturbing” (New York Times) tale of twin brothers locked in an agonizing bond during the upheaval and savagery of twentieth century Europe, The Notebook Trilogy comprises three internationally acclaimed novels that confirm Ágota Kristóf as one of the most provocative exponents of new-wave European fiction

Now featuring a new introduction by Ocean Vuong

The child says, ‘That’s the only difference between the dead and those who go away, isn’t it? Those who aren’t dead will return.’ Lucas says, ‘But how do we know they aren’t dead when they’re away?’ ‘We can’t know.’

Claus and Lucas are twins. Their new life begins when they are left with their grandmother, the ‘Witch’, in a village in an occupied country. It’s wartime. All their actions are based on survival. They create an exercise regime to toughen up, and record the results in a notebook. Their angelic looks are deceiving. They are implacable, dangerously ethical; their code of life demands that they help a deserter, or blackmail a priest, or come to the aid of a prostitute, or assist in a suicide. What motivates them is a deeply embedded morality of absolute need.

The trilogy—The Notebook (1986), The Proof (1988), and The Third Lie (1991)—follows their stories from the Second World War, through the years of communism and into a fractured Europe. In what could be seen as an allegory of post-war Europe, Claus and Lucas, locked in a tortuous bond, become separated and are isolated in different countries. They yearn to be connected again, but perspectives shift, memories diverge, identity becomes unstable.

Written in Kristof ’s spare, direct prose, The Notebook Trilogy is an exploration of the aftereffects of trauma and of the nature of storytelling. The novels explore truth and lies, shaped by a breathtaking artistic vision that is shocking, fascinating and utterly memorable.

Ágota Kristóf was born in Hungary in 1935, and moved to Switzerland when she was 21. Besides the three-part novel for which she is best-known — The Notebook, The Proof, and Third Lie — her books include Yesterday and The Illiterate. A winner of the Gottfried Keller Award and the Austrian State Prize for European Literature, Kristóf died in Neuchâtel in 2011.