A FILM-MAKER'S TALE

Brodeck's Report Philippe Claudel Do we need another Holocaust novel? Possibly not, but we do need this book, which derives heft from the Holocaust but is not really about it at all. It’s full of metaphor and allegory, but unlike, say, Camus’ “The Plague”, it doesn’t omit the particular horrors of Kristallnacht or Auschwitz, as seen through the maimed psyche of its narrator, Brodeck. Its power lies in its focus on the pungent residue.

Claudel is also a film director: his “I’ve Loved You So Long” captured the imperceptible degrees by which a woman recovers from a shocking event. Here, a small community comes to terms with occupation and war. Latent trauma bubbles up when an enigmatic stranger, the Anderer, arrives and rattles fragile consciences. The eerie atmosphere evokes another masterly film, Michael Haneke’s “The White Ribbon”. Much is left to us—who is the Anderer? why are animals lying down and dying?—and good and evil coexist. Even the only foothold we have, Brodeck’s testimony, is slippery, as he too is hiding a crime. His first line—“My name is Brodeck and I had nothing to do with it”—seems too eager for exoneration. It draws us into a book that is truthful and brilliant.

"Brodeck's Report", by Philippe Claudel, translated from French by John Cullen, is out now in paperback

~ JAKUB FIGURSKI