Catalog Registration: Click Here
“No, Father. You are wrong... You believe that we have morals because they are given to us by an External Power. I believe we have such rules because dead bodies stink... Man does not like the stench of dead bodies... But the world around him is such that he has to kill and produce dead bodies. I'm not saying he doesn't like killing. I'm saying he doesn't like the stench. That's the essence of the contradiction. He asks what is that extraterrestrial force that makes him close his nose to the unpleasant smell of decay that spoils the pleasure of killing, and in response he invents religions and moral codes, and allows the upper part of his nervous system to create the beginnings of civilization, eventually inventing not only refrigerators that delay the spoilage of meat, but also airtight gas chambers, flamethrowers that oxidize proteins in living things, and odorless, clean atomic bombs. Civilization has thus found a way to suppress what once gave birth to it. No, our civilization is in the process of committing suicide, not because of atheism, but because of the elimination of the stench of death.” The Mystery of the Sardine, written by Polish-British author Stefan Themerson in the last years of his life, is an extraordinary novel that reflects the versatility and vast knowledge of its author. It is a novel that resembles a detective story with its intriguing plot, but with its deep philosophical dialogues, its accurate observations and social criticisms that mirror life and history, its theorems that put Euclid in his place, and its subtle humor, it is a novel that refuses to be put into any category.