Comedy in a Minor Key

A Dutch couple hide a Jewish perfume merchant in their home during World War II in this classic dark comedy novella.

“A book of such profound and understated beauty that it almost seems to function as a parable.” —David L. Ulin, Los Angeles Times

A penetrating study of ordinary people resisting the Nazi occupation—and, true to its title, a dark comedy of wartime manners—Comedy in a Minor Key tells the story of Wim and Marie, a Dutch couple who first hide a Jew they know as Nico, then must dispose of his body when he dies of pneumonia. This novella, originally published in 1947 and now translated into English for the first time, shows Hans Keilson at his best: deeply ironic, penetrating, sympathetic, and brilliantly modern, as heir to Joseph Roth and Franz Kafka.

“Just as the Holocaust is slipping from living memory into history, [Keilson] arrives bearing striking new testimony.” —Adam Kirsch, Tablet

“The Death of the Adversary and Comedy in a Minor Key are masterpieces, and Hans Keilson is a genius. . . . Rarely have such harrowing narratives been related with such wry, off-kilter humor, and in so quiet a whisper. Read these books and join me in adding him to the list, which each of us must compose on our own, of the world’s very greatest writers.” —Francine Prose, The New York Times Book Review