Jonathan Littell

The Profile

Jonathan Littell (born 1967) is an American-born French author, best known for the novel Les Bienveillantes (The Kindly Ones), which won the 2006 Prix Goncourt.

Writes in French; born 1967; Les Bienveillantes (The Kindly Ones) won the 2006 Prix Goncourt.

A powerful, unsettling review of Jonathan Littell's Le Benevole (The Kindly Ones). The reviewer describes the novel as demanding and morally destabilizing, centered on the fictional Nazi officer Maximilian Aue. The book forces readers to confront complicity and responsibility; it's exhaustive (around 1000 pages) but considered unmissable.