Will I love The Notebook, the Proof, the Third Lie?

Kristóf (1935-2011) was a Hungarian writer who fled to Switzerland during the war and wrote in French.

The Notebook (the first in the trilogy) is currently number one on my list of all-time favourites. It has all the elements of storytelling that I love: deep, psychological insight into the human heart; adroit use of archetypes, which give the book a timeless, folkloric feel; concision (no waffling) and a poetic, pared-back language that creates a sense of startling immediacy.

Kristóf writes about World War II through the eyes of two young brothers in a Nazi-occupied country (unnamed), and she shocks us… show more.

Agota Kristof is the same age as my father and experienced the same country, Hungary, move from its pre-war existence to dictatorship and deportations during the war and then, after the war, turning into a communist state. Her absolutely brilliant storytelling is mystifying, present, and distant at the same time, maybe an allegory over the state of her homeland, maybe over being human. The Notebook is mindblowing.