Set in 1940s Budapest, Joseph Kertes’s 2009 novel Gratitude followed the fates of various members of the Beck family, Hungarian Jews caught in the storm of Nazi invasion. His new novel, The Afterlife of Stars, picks up the story of the Becks eleven years later, during the 1956 Hungarian uprising against the Soviets. In both books, Kertes presents tales of suffering with an uncommonly light touch and a feel for the wonder and absurdity of lives in extremis.
The later story is narrated from the point of view of young Robert Beck, aged 9.8 (he has recently been studying decimals), grandson of the now-deceased family patriarch, also named Robert Beck, The patriarch’s rift with his son Paul, young Robert’s uncle, at the end of Gratitude hovers over the new book like a curse. Afterlife is more compact than Gratitude, but equally dense. In contrast...
Cathy Stonehouse is the author of three books, including the story collection Something About the Animal (Biblioasis, 2011). She teaches creative writing at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Surrey, British Columbia.
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