'Comedy in a Minor Key is a masterpiece, and Hans Keilson is a genius … One of the world's very greatest writers.'

Francine Prose (The New York Times)

'Is Keilsen a genius? Are his novels "masterpieces"? I doubt if we can know. But read them. They will enthrall you.'

Inga Clendinnen (The Monthly)

'Devastating ... dreamlike ... Nowhere in this novel do the words 'Nazi' or 'Hitler' appear and the story works the way literature is supposed to in transforming specific real-life experience into something that has resonance and implications beyond its time and place. It's also a powerfully political novella in its depiction of oppression and the abuse of power, the infliction of cruelty in the name of ideology and the sheer power of organised resistance.'

(Sydney Morning Herald)

'Ironic, uncluttered and lucid, Keilson's writing shows great psychological insight and compassion. His novella is a small masterpiece.'

(Canberra Times)

'Helpless fear pervades ... yet it is uplifting: faced with atrocity people become alive to the corrosiveness of extremism, and injustice inspires compassion.'

(The Australian)

'After thousands of works about the Holocaust, this one – one of the very first – adds to our understanding ... This novella, with its evocation of a random universe and its surprising humour, anticipates Samuel Beckett and the Theatre of the Absurd of the 1950s.'

(The Financial Times)

'Insightful, compassionate.'

(Launceston Examiner)

‘Not once does the author mention Hitler. Not once does he mention death camps. Not once does he put the word Nazi on paper. Rather, in Comedy in a Minor Key, author Hans Keilson reveals the horrors of the Holocaust in an eerie, intense way ... This fast-paced book, translated by Damion Searls, is a jewel. The author lets us peer into his soul.’ — The Boston Globe

(The Boston Globe)

'This first-ever English translation of Keilson’s gripping 1947 novel about a Dutch couple hiding a Jewish perfume merchant in their home during WWII marks a welcome reintroduction to the author’s unfortunately obscure oeuvre … Beautifully nuanced and moving, Keilson’s tale probes the more concealed, subtle forces that annihilate the human spirit.'

(Publishers Weekly)

'Keilson's anti-heroic cast come to life in unfussy, precise prose that never crowds its subject matter or clouds the truths it evinces. His occasional golden periods are merited by the crisp simplicity of what precedes and follows, and mirror the penetrating insights he gives us into his characters.'

(Jewish Chronicle)

'A brisk, engaging work of Holocaust literature that deserves to be better known.'

Brendan Driscol (Booklist)