Friedrich Dürrenmatt

Der Auftrag is a 1986 novella by the Swiss writer Friedrich Dürrenmatt. The first English publication appeared in 1988, translated by Joel Agee. The experimental narrative is divided into twenty-four parts, each one a single sentence spanning many pages. In his forward to the 2008 English language edition, Theodore …

Police chief inspector Baerlach has just undergone surgery when his friend and doctor, Hugentobler, thinks he recognizes one of his own colleagues on a LIFE Magazine picture. The article is about Dr. Neyle, a nazi doctor who practiced surgery without anesthesia in the extermination camps. This Dr. Neyle could now be …