The Ministry of Special Cases
(Paperback)
Publishing Details
The Ministry of Special Cases
By (Author) Nathan Englander
Orion Publishing Co
Weidenfeld & Nicolson
25th August 2020
25th June 2020
United Kingdom
Classifications
General
Fiction
Short stories
813.6
Physical Properties
Paperback
352
Width 128mm, Height 196mm, Spine 28mm
320g
Description
Buenos Aires, 1970s. Kaddish Poznan chips the names off gravestones for a living, removing traces of disreputable ancestors for their more respectable kin. His wife Lillian works in insurance, earning money when people live longer than they fear. When the government is overthrown in a military coup, their son Pato is arrested by the police and becomes one of the disappeared. Desperate to find him, Kaddish and Lillian turn to the Ministry of Special Cases, a bureaucracy of anguish and false promises, and they discover just how far they are willing to go to save their son...
Reviews
Powerful and engaging ... shot through with a dark humour, which makes it all the more moving
* The Times *Who is this Nathan Englander, so young in novelist years, but already possessed of an old masters voice One reads this novel in awe of Englander's talent * New York Times *
Wry and haunting ... Englander's novel is a striking memorial to the victims of political oppression * Sunday Times *
Englander writes with exquisite precision * Guardian *
At times so heartbreaking that you want to turn away * Sunday Telegraph *
Author Bio
Nathan Englander is the author of the story collections For the Relief of Unbearable Urges, an international best seller, and What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank, and the nov els The Ministry of Special Cases and Dinner at the Center of the Earth. His books have been translated into twenty-two languages. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a PEN/Malamud Award, the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, and the Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Let ters, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2013. He is Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University and lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife and daughter.
