Charlotte Mandell’s strong English translation occasionally wanders off into eccentric dialogue, Brooklyn demotic or — in one instance — mock cockney. But the main problem lies elsewhere. The French text of The Kindly Ones made use of Nazi-era titles and acronyms, and these are retained (with a helpful glossary) in the present edition. Inevitably, in an English text, they fail to evoke the fear and helplessness that they originally conveyed. This is because German became the public language of conquest during the occupation of France: it was displayed in every town and commune and, thanks to photography, words like polizeiführer now form part of the iconography of war.

One reaches the last pages of this very long novel absorbed and exhausted, but not exhilarated or even clean. The book evokes corruption so successfully that it becomes corrupting. Perhaps this is a necessary condition of understanding at this level the events that it describes. The question remains as to whether it is a legitimate exercise for a novelist to intervene in recent history in this way. The answer must be yes, if it is done this well. With the publication of The Kindly Ones the Holocaust is replaced in its historical context, a development that does nothing to diminish its horror. Dr Aue cannot be brought to trial because he does not exist; on the other hand, he can give us something even more valuable than vengeance, something that no real war criminal can manage, and that is total honesty.

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