House of Memory and Oblivion

This novel gives hope that a person can hide even from absolute evil. To hide from it, to become stronger than any circumstance.

Albert Weiss manages to survive during the Holocaust, however, memories haunt him his entire life, just like the sound of a train taking his parents to Auschwitz and transforming his younger brother into a bird. Many years later, while walking in New York, Albert stumbles upon the House of Memory and Oblivion – by entering it, one can forever forget everything that has tormented him for so long. But does memory not give us true knowledge of ourselves? And what if, besides the physical world, soaked in evil, there is another one – subtle, otherworldly? Will the dear people from it disappear if Albert erases the painful images from his memory?

The novel by Philip David, an outstanding contemporary Serbian writer, is a patchwork quilt of memories, letters, and visions – illustrating Hannah Arendt's theory of the banality of evil and collective responsibility for the deeds and at the same time refuting it.