Death in Rome

By Wolfgang Koeppen
Translated by Michael Hofmann
With a contribution by Joshua Cohen

"A triumph, a gem of postwar German literature that has remained obscure in the Anglophone world for too long... Ribald, irreverent, cutting, rhapsodic, and ultimately devastating portraits of German amnesia and hypocrisy." — Becca Rothfeld, The New Yorker

"The reader closes Death in Rome not knowing whether he has just witnessed a murder or the creation of a masterpiece. The answer is: both"—The New York Times
 
"In a brilliant translation of this great German novel, Michael Hofmann has illuminated a dark corner of recent European history. A forgotten masterpiece."—The Evening Standard

On the anniversary of Wolfgang Koeppen’s 120th year, the two remaining works in his postwar trilogy, now available again in Michael Hofmann’s spectacular translation.

Death in Rome tells the story of four members of a German family—a former SS officer, a young man preparing for the priesthood, a composer, and a government administrator—reunited by chance in the decaying beauty of postwar Rome. A chilling account of Nazis after the war, here the older generation is resentful but not repentant. From the old unreconstructed Nazi officer Judejahn (the name has a suggestion of “Jew hunter”) to the young and apparently gay priest, from the supposedly reformed Mayor to the acclaimed but haunted young composer Siegfried, no clear hope emerges. And amid haunting flashbacks and against the shadows of Rome with its imperial echoes, the darkness is alive. Brace yourself: the novel takes place over a two-day period, mostly at night, and it's certain that the present will be governed by the past, if you let it. In Death in Rome, Koeppen amply demonstrates that evil doesn't simply cease once it loses a war—it seeps out, hungry to exist in other forms. And as Siegfried confesses: “In my daydreams and nightmares I see the Browns and the nationalist idiocy on the march again.”

Death in Rome—following Pigeons on the Grass and The Hothouse— blazingly concludes Koeppen’s masterful trilogy.

Paperback
224 pages
New Directions, 2026
Originally published in 1954
5x8 inches
ISBN 9780811240024
Fiction