Littell, Jonathan. The Kindly Ones [Les Bienveillantes]

Historical novel about WWII and the Holocaust in the form of an autobiography narrated entirely by the fictional SS officer Max Aue. Based on numerous historical sources, the novel deals with Aue’s involvement in the Einsatzgruppen, the Battle of Stalingrad, Operation Reinhard, and the Battle of Berlin. The Holocaust narrative is interwoven with stories about Aue’s childhood and family, including the incestuous relationship he has with his twin sister, his dissappeared father, and the remarriage of his mother. Upon release, the novel sparked an enormous debate because of its problematic narrator: a perpetrator of the highest degree, without remorse for his actions, who, on top of that, fills his narrative with graphic descriptions of mass murder, disease, and sex. Nonetheless it is widely considered a key text that has significantly changed the parameters of the discussions on the (ethics of the) literary representation of perpetrators.

Littell, Jonathan. The Kindly Ones. Translated by Charlotte Mendell. London: Vintage Books, 2009.