{"product_id":"kapo-9781681374390","title":"Kapo","description":"\u003cb\u003eA devastating novel about the attrocities of WWII, and the unspeakable things people did to survive, by one of Yugoslavia's great literary voices.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Book of Blam\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Use of Man\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eKapo\u003c\/i\u003e In these three unsparing novels the Yugoslav author Aleksandar Tisma anatomized the plight of those who survived the Second World War and the death camps, only to live on in a death-haunted world. Blam simply lucked out--and can hardly face himself in the mirror. By contrast, the teenage friends in \u003ci\u003eThe Use of Man\u003c\/i\u003e are condemned to live on and on while enduring every affliction. \u003ci\u003eKapo\u003c\/i\u003e is about Lamian, who made it through Auschwitz by serving his German masters, knowing that at any moment and for any reason his \"special status\" might be revoked. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBut the war is over now. Auschwitz is in the past. Lamian has settled down in the Bosnian town of Banja Luka, where he has a respectable job as a superintendent in the railyard. Everything is normal enough. Then one day in the paper he comes on the name of Helena Lifka, a woman--like him a Yugoslav and a Jew--he raped in the camp. Not long after he sees her, aged and ungainly, Lamian is flooded with guilt and terror. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eKapo\u003c\/i\u003e, like Tisma's other great novels, is not simply a document or an act of witness. Tisma's terrible gift is to see with an artist's dispassionate clarity how fear, violence, guilt, and desire--whether for life, love, or simple understanding--are inextricably knotted together in the human breast.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e New York Review of Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/07\/2021\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781681374390\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 312","brand":"Aleksander Tisma","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40721129341109,"sku":"9781681374390","price":15.26,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_8de1cac9-7d6f-4843-a44f-00d79cd674f1.jpg?v=1628605268","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/kapo-9781681374390","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}