The big notebook

The big notebook is the first and most important part of the trilogy by Agota Kristof, followed by The Proof and the third lie. In this book, Kristof, the Hungarian who learned French while she was a refugee in Switzerland, working in a factory, raising her daughter, and writing, recounts what life means between two homelands and about belonging to a world torn apart by wars from all directions. The growing brutality during the war appears and how most aspects of life are destroyed. The novel The Big Notebook is a surprising, astonishing, and painful novel. It was published in a beautiful translation by Mohamed Ait Hanna by Dar Al-Jamal as part of a distinguished collection of translated novels. It is considered one of the most important French literary works now since its publication in 1986. About The Big Notebook Agota Kristof was writing her novel The Big Notebook and learning French at the same time, meaning that the novel was training in writing. The novel revolves around two children learning about life and learning to write within an intense scene closer to short narrative stories in simple and enjoyable language, containing much social and life realism, perhaps reflecting the writer's journey, and reflecting the dual nature of her life between Hungary and France. "We came from the big city. We had traveled all night. My mother’s eyes were red. She was carrying a large cardboard box, while each of us carried a small bag containing our clothes, in addition to the big dictionary, which belonged to my father, and we exchanged carrying it whenever one of us got tired. We walked for a long time. Grandma’s house is far from the train station, on the other side of the small town. There is no tram here, no bus, not even cars. Only some military trucks roam the roads." About the book The Big Notebook: "The novel traces the seeds of the spread of conflict and violence after the war ends, as a new, different war ignites, detonating societal bombs and leading to subsequent eliminations and revenge, which are rejected and contribute to deepening wounds and distorting the features of society." Al Jazeera "A literary experience for the reader that pushes him to reconsider all the values he learned and took for granted, a work of art that can change your life." Al Masry Al Youm "A novel of childhood, innocence, and moral standards cloaked in evil, corruption, cruelty, and delusion, a novel of dark humor, strange absurdity, close to the theater of Beckett and Unesco, a novel of war, tyranny, the search for justice, and attempts to establish it through twisted methods." The Big Notebook, a novel about the repercussions of war on childhood, old age, and the parenthood that loses its meaning, and motherhood that loses its most important traits, and sonship that feels no belonging to a family. Many topics written in short sentences and precise chapters, with a simple, easy vocabulary that attracts the reader and traps him in a neutral realism that turns into a cold, convincing brutality. Life About the novel The Big Notebook and the author The novel was adapted into a film titled "Le Grand Cahier / The Notebook." The film director said after finishing the adaptation: "This text changed my life." The literary critic of The Times received the English translation of the novel with the statement: "The words of this work are new: as if they had not been used before." Agota Kristof lived in Switzerland from 1956 and died there in 2021. During that period, she learned and wrote in French, earning several important and prestigious European literary awards, leaving behind an astonishing literary legacy.