Author: Ágota Kristóf
Translator: Chris Andrews
Publisher: Penguin
Burley Fisher Books of the Year 2025
Lu says… I was drawn to I Don’t Care for the manner in which Kristóf examines small moments minutely, or tell a person’s whole life in a handful of words - everyday examinations of relationships and family, to fantastical, allegorical passages. Despite these variations, they are clearly united by voice and style — expertly translated by Chris Andrews, they have brevity, simplicity, irony, humour and strangeness. In ‘The Canal,’ a dying man experiences dreams and nightmares. He searches for his son, his street, his house, seeing “indigo mountains hung with a necklace of lights.” He’s lost and then found, stalked by a puma. ‘A Northbound Train,’ begins with the stark image of a statue at an abandoned train station then spirals into the story of an old man who deserted and lost his family. In these short fictions, Kristóf’s words flash visions of life simultaneously emotionless and excruciating. Painful though they are, they keep her alive, and I felt so in reading this, leaving the book with a renewed vigour towards witnessing and writing.