Books
REVIEWS
On the hunt for the Angel of Death
The Disappearance of Josef Mengele by Olivier Guez comes to us after a long period of anticipation. First published in France in 2017, it won the Prix Renaudot in its native country and now makes its way to Anglophone audiences through the radical indie press Verso and a faithful translation by Georgia de Chamberet. The cover proclaims it to be a factual novel, another proponent of that strange genre known as “narrative nonfiction” whereby real-life events are recounted using the style, register and voice of a novel. It’s a style that hits as much as it misses, but in the hands of Olivier Guez it flourishes in ways I’ve rarely seen before.
The novel is an account of the post-Holocaust years of the infamous surgeon of Auschwitz, Josef Mengele. He, along with numerous other Nazis, flees to Argentina after the events of World War II in hope of seeking refuge and exile
