I read this book as part of my series of reading books by Nobel prize winning authors. I chose Liquidation because of the title's reference to the Nazi liquidation of Jewish towns and ghettos.

Inevitably, I feel that this may be one of the most post-modern books I've ever read. It begins by describing a play which, through the amazing foresight of the already-deceased central character, is a series of events faithfully recorded before they occur. Although the playwright was himself a fascinating survivor of Auschwitz (actually, he is perhaps the only baby born in Auschwitz to survive, and bears his tattooed ID number on his leg instead of his wrist as a result) the book is set in post-Communist Hungary, as those who are still living explore what happens to those whose story has ended.

In writing this, I realize how much I need to go back and read this book again. It was not a laborious read, but I wasn't transported by it at the time. I could tell it was implying something, but I couldn't quite reach at what. It ought to have hit me at the time that the deceased friend who haunts the book served more as a metaphor than as a character, but sometimes you can't see the forest for the trees when the pages are in front of you.