Kaddish for an Unborn Child

Kaddish for an Unborn Child (Hungarian: Kaddis a meg nem született gyermekért) is a novel by Imre Kertész, first published in 1990 (ISBN 0-8101-1161-6).

Kaddish for an Unborn Child
AuthorImre Kertész
Original titleKaddis a meg nem született gyermekért
TranslatorChristopher C. Wilson and Katharina M. Wilson
LanguageHungarian
Publication date
1990
Publication placeHungary
Published in English
1999

The novel deals with the struggles of a Holocaust survivor after the war, explaining to a friend why he cannot bring a child into a world that could allow such atrocities to happen. The book also deals with the narrator's failed marriage, his unsuccessful literary career, and the concept of his Jewishness.

Kertész won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2002 "for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history".

English translations

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First edition cover
  • Kaddish for an Unborn Child, tr. Tim Wilkinson, 2004, ISBN 1-4000-7862-8
  • Kaddish for a Child Not Born, tr. Christopher C. Wilson and Katharina M. Wilson, 1999, ISBN 0-8101-1161-6