Original title Beichte eines Mörders Country Netherlands Publisher A. de Lange Originally published 1936 Page count 262 Published in english 1937 | Translator Desmond I. Vesey Publication date 1936 Genre Fiction | |
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Similar Works by Joseph Roth, Fiction books | ||
Confession of a Murderer (German: Beichte eines Mörders) is a 1936 novel by the Austrian writer Joseph Roth. It has the subtitle Told in One Night (Erzählt in einer Nacht). The narrative focuses on an exile Russian, Golubchik, who tells what he claims to be his life's story to an alcoholic writer.
Reception
James A. Snead of The New York Times wrote in 1985: "Roth's night-story implicitly identifies the twilight of the Austro-Hungarian Empire with Golubchik's private 'tragedy of banality.' His futile search for paternity, homeland and revenge, ranging over 'Old Europe' from Odessa to Paris, is an ambivalent elegy to a lost epoch. The double narration creates an air of evasiveness and manipulation that mirrors the intrigues of the state bureaucracies Golubchik encounters."