FIRST THOUGHTS: Laub’s latest novel translated into English

DIARY of the Fall presents three generations of lives defined by particular moments.

For the narrator’s grandfather, it was surviving Auschwitz (or at least gaining a stay of execution), a horror that claimed the lives of his parents, his three brothers, his girlfriend, and any number of neighbours and friends, a horror so immense that it goes beyond words and is never again mentioned by him or in his presence, even as it forever colours every aspect of his life.