A Jew Must Die

by Jacques Chessex

Overview

The murder of a Jewish merchant in Switzerland during WWII told in a haunting novel.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781904738572
Publisher:	Bitter Lemon Press, Ltd
Publication date:	05/15/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	102
File size:	102 KB

About the Author

Jacques Chessex, born in 1934, won the Prix Goncourt, France's most prestigious literary prize for his novel L'Ogre. He is considered one of Switzerland's greatest authors, a novelist, poet, essayist and winner of the French Literature Grand Prix of the Académie Française. 

W. Donald Wilson is a professor at the University of Waterloo in Canada. He is a translator of fiction and non-fiction from the French and his work includes titles by Yves Thériault and Jean Heffer.

Editorial Reviews

Those interested in Nazi activity in neutral Switzerland during WWII will best appreciate this slight novella from Prix Goncourt winner Chessex (The Vampire of Ropraz). In April 1942, in the small market town of Payerne, an anti-Semitic pastor incites a band of local Nazis “to set an example for Switzerland and for the Jewish parasites on its soil.” National Movement leader Fernand Ischi and his thugs target a representative Jew, cattle-dealer Arthur Bloch, whose murder will make a fine birthday present for Adolf Hitler. While this book generated controversy in Switzerland, where the country's role in WWII is still a sensitive issue, U.S. readers will find that it falls short of, say, Jerzy Kosinski's The Painted Bird and other works that view the Holocaust through isolated instances of violence. Chessex (1934–2009), who was born in Payerne, was also an essayist, poet, and painter. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly