For Publisher Of Holocaust Novel, Its Value Is Controversy

“Jonathan Littell’s nearly 1,000-page Holocaust novel, ‘The Kindly Ones,’ went on sale Tuesday, but critics already have drawn fiercely partisan battle lines.” HarperCollins is sure to welcome the dust-up after having paid $1 million for the American rights to the book, which has “what publishers are increasingly searching for these days: controversy, splashiness, something for readers to get worked up about,” no matter “the quality of the prose or story therein.”