Fone Kwas oder Der Idiot

It was confiscated, remained missing, and was only rediscovered a decade later: an incredible story worthy of Kafka or Borges, where reality and madness constantly swap roles in new ways. A prominent scientist is arrested in a Soviet-Ukrainian provincial town for belonging to an organization he knows nothing about. He faces the threat of torture and suspects he won’t be able to endure it. He devises a plan to pretend to be the "Fone Kwas" (a Yiddish term for a fool or "simpleton") in front of the NKVD officers, making incoherent and unbelievable "confessions" – hoping to be quickly convicted, then appeal and demonstrate that everything he confessed is technically and scientifically completely untenable, so that he will ultimately be released due to "wrongful" arrest. He carries out his plan. He talks about mythical acts of sabotage, draws chaotic diagrams. The more insane and bizarre his statements become, the more captivated his investigator listens, and the more pleased he appears. And in the end, everything turns out quite differently than the defendant expected. The mad reality of Stalinist terror will far surpass the fabricated phantoms of the "Fone Kwas." The work on the translation of this book was kindly supported by the S. Fischer Foundation.