Яхим Топол: Devil s Workshop

The devil had his workshop in Belarus. That s where the deepest graves are. But no one knows about it.

A young man grows up in a town with a sinister history. The concentration camp may have been liberated years ago, but its walls still cast their long shadows and some of the inhabitants are quite determined to not to allow anyone to forget. When the camp is marked for demolition, one of the survivors begins a campaign to preserve it, quickly attracting donations from wealthy benefactors, a cult-like following of young travellers, and a steady stream of tourists buying souvenir t-shirts.But before long, the authorities impose a brutal crack-down, leaving only an official memorial and three young collaborators whose commitment to the act of remembering will drive them ever closer to the evils they hoped to escape.

Bold, brilliant and blackly comic, The Devil s Workshop paints a deeply troubling portrait of a country dealing with its ghosts and asks: at what point do we consign the past to history?