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The Kindly Ones
The Kindly Ones | Jonathan Littell
“Oh my human brothers, let me tell you how it happened.” Dr. Max Aue, the man at the heart of Jonathan Littell’s stunning and controversial novel The Kindly Ones, personifies the evils of the Second World War and the Holocaust. Highly educated and cultured, he was an ambitious SS officer, a Nazi and mass murderer who was in the upper echelons of the Third Reich. He tells us of his experience during the war. He was present at Auschwitz and Babi Yar, witnessed the battle of Stalingrad, and survived the fall of Berlin — receiving a medal from Hitler personally in the last days of Nazi Germany. Long after the war, he is living a comfortable bourgeois life in France, married with two children, managing a lace factory. And now, having evaded justice, he speaks out, giving a precise and accurate record of his life. The tone of his account is detached, lapidary, and for the most part unrepentant, whether he is describing his participation in mass murder on the Eastern Front, his bureaucratic investigations of labour productivity in the death camps, his casual murder of civilians as he tries to break through Russian lines towards the end of the war, or his fervid and convoluted relationship with his twin sister. Over its course, by entwining Aue’s life with those of historical figures such as Eichmann and Speer, Himmler and indeed Hitler, The Kindly Ones comes to depict the entire architecture of Nazism — from its grandest intellectual pretensions to its most minute, most chilling managerial details and executions. The Kindly Ones presents — with unprecedented realism, meticulous research that is both fascinating and compelling, and brilliant literary accomplishment — the greatest horrors imaginable. “War and murder are a question, a question without an answer, for when you cry out in the night, no one answers,” Aue says. In the same way, this powerfully affecting, powerfully challenging book confronts the reader with the most profound questions about history, morality, and art without offering any easy resolution. Written originally in French, and published now in English for the first time, The Kindly Ones has already sold to date well over a million copies in Europe. In France it won two prestigious prizes, including the Goncourt, and has been compared to War and Peace and other great classics of literature. From the Hardcover edition.
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yoavshai
The Kindly Ones | Jonathan Littell
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#BookCoverChallenge
Day 50.
Here I will note 365 books (or as many as I will have before I get tired) that have shaped my taste in literature. No explanations, no reviews. Just the cover of the book.
I do not challenge anyone. You are all welcome to take part.

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Liz_M
The Kindly Ones | Jonathan Littell
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Nothing says "beach holiday" like the tagged book! ? ? ?

Swe_Eva 😂 Very beachy... 6y
15 likes1 comment
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CafeMom
The Kindly Ones | Jonathan Littell
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#backpackEurope @JenP @BookwormM @Pippitypip @Kristelh Looking out from Yad Vashem, Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. No pictures were allowed inside. Life changing tour from the granddaughter of a survivor. The Kindly Ones, I am on track with my reading. I liked the first 100 pages but have lost interest in the book. I hope it gets better for me. #1001books #reading1001

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Pippitypip
The Kindly Ones | Jonathan Littell
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I have only just started to read this book but it is just so appropriate after visiting Dresden yesterday. Many of the magnificent buildings were left blackened by the firestorm in 1945. I had also noticed the discreet brass plaques amongst the cobblestones of Salzburg commemorating Jewish people who had once lived there. #backpackEurope @JenP @BookwormM

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Chili
The Kindly Ones | Jonathan Littell
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I love book mail!!

Kristelh Quarterly read for #reading1001 in #2018! 7y
Chili I already have the other three and just needed this one. I have the yearly read on its way. My goal is to do better at participating in the discussions. 7y
Nute This book is on one of reading list from a few years ago. I gave it a high priority, but never got around to reading it. I‘ll be looking out for your thoughts and maybe it will be planned for 2018. 7y
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FantasyEmma
The Kindly Ones | Jonathan Littell
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Finally got past the prologue of this book. It's almost 1,000 pages, the longest I've read in a long time.

athorne I read it as the prologue being that long and had a moment. 😹😹😹 7y
bibliophagist89 @TheGhastlyGrimoire same here 🙈🤣🤣 7y
8 likes2 comments
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Tanner
The Kindly Ones | Jonathan Littell
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Pickpick

Finally - it took a while to finish this one. With such a heavy subject matter, I'm sure I'll still be thinking about it in the days to come.

CAGirlReading I still think about this one, I think this had to be one of the most disturbing books I have ever read. However, it was beautifully written in its own way... 8y
Tanner @CAGirlReading - I agree, I certainly couldn't call it an enjoyable read. And the beautiful prose in some sections made it all the more disturbing. 8y
4 likes2 comments