Reading Group : “La disparition de Josef Mengele”, by Olivier Guez

Every month the reading club of the Institut français d’Écosse meets to discuss a book selected in advance (from classical to contemporary French literature). The discussion is held in French.

The next reading group will take place on Tuesday 20 June 2023. The book selected is “La disparition de Josef Mengele”, by Olivier Guez

Olivier Guez (born 15 June 1974) is a French journalist, essayist and writer. He won the 2017 Prix Renaudot for his novel “The Disappearance of Josef Mengele” (“La disparition de Josef Mengele”).

Summary:
An extraordinary novel about one of history’s most reviled figures. For three decades, until the day he collapsed in the Brazilian surf in 1979, Josef Mengele, the Angel of Death who performed horrific experiments on the prisoners of Auschwitz, floated through South America in linen suits, keeping two steps ahead of Mossad agents, international police and the world’s journalists. In this rigorously researched factual novel drawn almost entirely from historical documents Olivier Guez traces Mengele’s footsteps through these years of flight. This chilling novel situates the reader in a literary manhunt on the trail of one of the most elusive and evil figures of the twentieth century.