The Bastard Factory

by Chris Kraus, Ruth Martin (translator)

Chris Kraus' The Bastard Factory tells the story of an entire epoch: a drama of betrayal and self-delusion spanning the years 1905 to 1975, taking us from Riga to Moscow, Berlin and Munich all the way to Tel Aviv.

Hubert and Konstantin Solm are brothers, born in Riga at the beginning of the twentieth century, they will find themselves - along with their Jewish adopted sister, Ev Solm - caught up in in the maelstrom of their changing times.

As the two brothers climb the rungs of society - working first for the government in Nazi Germany, then as agents for the Allied Forces, and eventually becoming spies for the young West Germany - Ev will be their constant companion, and eventually a lover to them both. The passionate love triangle that emerges will propel the characters to terrifying moral and political depths.

The story of the Solms is also the story of twentieth-century Germany: the decline of an old world and the rise of a new one - under new auspices but with the same familiar protagonists.

725 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2022

About the author

Chris Kraus is a writer and critic. She studied acting and spent almost two decades making performances and experimental films in New York before moving to Los Angeles where she began writing. Her novels include Aliens & Anorexia, I Love Dick, Torpor, and Summer of Hate. She has published three books of cultural criticism—Video Green: Los Angeles Art and the Triumph of Nothingness, Where Art Belongs, and Social Practices. I Love Dick was adapted for television and her literary biography After Kathy Acker was published by Semiotext(e) and Penguin Press. A former Guggenheim Fellow, Kraus held the Mary Routt Chair of Writing at Scripps College in 2019 and was Writer-in-Residence at ArtCenter College between 2020–2024. She has written for various magazines and has been a coeditor of the independent press Semiotext(e) since 1990. Her work has been praised for its damning intelligence, vulnerability, and dazzling speed and has been translated into seventeen languages. She lives in Los Angeles.

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book although devoid of explanation for the horrific crimes committed. Perhaps the fact that the main protagonist seemed completely detached from the devastation meted out by the Nazis and offered little insight beyond self interest and survival is the whole point. I enjoyed the story and thought the characters developed well, but it lacked something I can’t quite put my finger on. That might be humanity of course.

[Kayleigh · Rating 1 out of 5]

Haven’t finished yet but I am on 47% and the first half of the book was really good and interesting and I was thinking if it stayed that way it was on for a good 4 star rating … but I feel at this point the main part of the story is over and I’m wondering how the hell theres 50% left and I’m losing interest fast!

[Mallory Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book gave me shell shock