Novel is the talk of Frankfurt

The most talked-about title at this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair is a 902-page tome that crams in the Holocaust, incest, lashings of visceral violence and some gay sex, all narrated by an unrepentant former Nazi.

As if that weren’t provocative enough, “Les Bienveillantes” turns out to be a first novel by Jonathan Littell, the 39-year-old son of U.S. spy novelist Robert Littell.

Already a bestseller for Gallimard in France, the book has now been sold to German publishers Berlin Verlag. Italian and Dutch deals have also been made, and it will be auctioned in the U.S. and U.K. this month.