Set in contemporary Israel, The Immortal Bartfuss is perhaps the most
profound and powerful portrait of a Holocaust survivor ever drawn. Using
the techniques of omission and indirection perfected in such
masterpieces as Badenheim 1939 and To the Land of the Cattails,
Appelfeld tells the story of Bartfuss, enigmatically the immortal
because of his experience in the camps. Now locked in a hopeless
marriage, Bartfuss struggles to suppress the emotions and recollections
he fears and despises, while trying to keep alive the poise, dignity,
and compassion essential to a human being. The Immortal Bartfuss is an
overwhelming and unforgettable study of a man reduced to his tragic
limits.