num_pages: 377
description: Arrested and imprisoned in a small Swiss town, a prisoner begins this book with an exclamation: "I'm not Stiller!" He claims that his name is Jim White, that he has been jailed under false charges and under the wrong identity. To prove he is who he claims to be, he confesses to three unsolved murders and recalls in great detail an adventuresome life in America and Mexico among cowboys and peasants, in back alleys and docks. He is consumed by "the morbid impulse to convince," but no one believes him. This is a harrowing account part Kafka, part Camus of the power of self-deception and the freedom that ultimately lies in self-acceptance. Simultaneously haunting and humorous, I'm Not Stiller has come to be recognized as "one of the major post-war works of fiction" and a masterpiece of German literature.
language: English
title: I'm Not Stiller
titlecomplete: I'm Not Stiller
characters: Julika Stiller-Tschudy,, Anatol Ludwig Stiller, James Larkin White
genres: Classics, Mystery, Philosophy, Novels, German Literature, Germany, 20th Century, Literature, Literary Fiction, Fiction
ratings_count: 4874
places: Switzerland
publisher: Dalkey Archive Press