The Maimed

The first English translation, The Maimed is set in Prague and relates the story of a highly neurotic, socially inept bank clerk who is eventually impelled by his widowed landlady into servicing her sexual appetites. At the same time he must witness the steady physical and mental deterioration of his lifelong friend who is suffering from an unnamed disease. Part psychological farce, Ungar tells a dark, ironic tale of chaos overtaking one's meticulously ordered life. One of only two novels his wrote, this translation marks the first time any have appeared in English and was followed up by Twisted Spoon Press with Boys & Murderers, a collection of Ungar's novellas and short stories. "... a sexual hell, full of filth, crime and the deepest melancholy—a monomaniacal digression, if you will, but nevertheless the digression of an inwardly pure artistry, which one might hope will mature into a less one-sided view and representation of life and humanity." – Thomas Mann