Situated at the time between the world wars and narrated by an unnamed teacher who struggles with his profession as he slowly watches himself become instrument to the promotion of propaganda - this dark fable belongs to the best books I have ever read.

It speaks about the nature of guilt and the meaning of such a term in a perverted/corrupted society, brutalised by a war that lies behind and a holocaust yet to come. Horvárth's language is simple yet extremely poignant, some of he images he provokes will forever be glued to my inner lens and in very short chapters and an artful understatement he drives the story foreward, circeling one of it's main theme's, the existence of god, or of such a thing as meaning in a world that seems to have a become a statement of the absence of both.

I am not sure whether Michael Haneke has in part been inspired by this novella when writing and filming his Oscar winning movie 'Das weiße Band' ( The White Ribbon). However when reading this book, this film would be great company. Both of them I would whole-heartedly recommend.
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I may lose my Austrian passports for this but I utterly failed to connect with this book. Bechdel: Pass (borderline). ( )