A seminar to debate the trilogy of Hungarian writer and poet Agota Kristof (1935-2011) will be held at Davoudieh Cultural House in Tehran at Wednesday, October 5.
The debate starts at 4:30 pm. It will be attended by author and translator Ahmad Pouri, researcher in literature Masoud Pahlevan, fiction writer, literary critic and lecturer Sirous Nafisi and playwright Asghar Nouri whose translations include Kristof’s trilogy, IBNA reported.
The Notebook, The Proof and The Third Lie, the three internationally acclaimed novels have confirmed Kristof’s reputation as one of the most provocative exponents of new-wave European fiction.
“With all the stark simplicity of a fractured fairy tale, the trilogy tells the story of twin brothers, Claus and Lucas, locked in an agonizing bond that becomes a gripping allegory of the forces that have divided ‘brothers’ in much of Europe since World War II,” Goodreads (goodreads.com) said of her novels.
Kristof’s postmodern saga begins with The Notebook, released in 1986, in which the brothers are children, lost in a country torn apart by conflict, who must learn every trick of evil and cruelty merely to survive.
Two years later, her trilogy continues with The Proof, in which, Lucas is challenging to prove his own identity and the existence of his missing brother, a defector to the “other side.”
The Third Lie, which closes the trilogy in 1991, is a deep exploration into the nature of identity, storytelling, and the truths and untruths that lie at the heart of them all. The most important themes of this trilogy are war and destruction, love and loneliness, desire and loss, truth and fiction.
The Christian Science Monitor described the trilogy as “a powerful portrait of the nobility and perversity of the human heart.”
Kristof’s Life
Agota Kristof lived in Switzerland and wrote in French. The Notebook won her the European prize for French literature. The book was translated in over 30 languages.
In 1995 Kristof completed the novel Yesterday. In 2004, she published The Illiterate, an autobiography exploring her love of reading as a young child, her life in a boarding school and then over the border to Austria, and finally to Switzerland. Forced to leave her country due to the failure of an anti-communist rebellion, she hopes for a better life in Zurich.
The seminar on Kristof’s trilogy is open to all enthusiasts. Davoudieh Cultural House is located at the intersection of Alborz and Taban Alleys, Mirdamad Blvd, Tehran.
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