''The Pathseeker'' () is a 1977

novella A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most novelettes and short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) ...

by the Hungarian writer

Imre Kertész Imre Kertész (; 9 November 192931 March 2016) was a Hungarian author and recipient of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Literature, "for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history". He was ...

. Set in a series of unnamed postwar European locales, the story follows a government commissioner going on vacation to a resort town with his wife. The commissioner makes a detour from the planned route in order to investigate an old, unspecified injustice. He conducts an ominous investigation, visiting a local landmark and traveling to an isolated rural factory, eventually finding himself in an overgrown yet empty field. Described as both puzzling and profound by critics, the novella has been noted for its bewildering lack of particulars about setting. Though

the Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

is never mentioned by name, most reviews suggest the unspecified past injustice is tied to the

genocide Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...

Kertész survived as a young man. The work has also been called a wry indictment of superficial tourism and its trivializing effect on history. Three decades after its initial publication in Hungary,

Melville House Publishing Melville House Publishing is an American independent publisher of literary fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. The company was founded in 2001 and is run by the husband-and-wife team of Dennis Loy Johnson and Valerie Merians in Hoboken, New Jersey. ...

published an English translation by

Tim Wilkinson Timothy David Wilkinson (born 26 July 1978) is a professional golfer from New Zealand. Early life Wilkinson was born in Palmerston North, and was educated at St Peter's College. He won the New Zealand Stroke Play Championship in 2000. Prof ...

References

1970s novellas 20th-century Hungarian novels {{1970s-novel-stub