I don't care  - Agota Kristof

This is a small book of short stories translated from French by Chris Andrews.

The book is a total of 96 pages containing 25 stories. Some as few as 2 pages and at most 6 pages. None of which I felt were cut short. Great tiny stories in their own right.
It is a nice little compilation of well written stories. Some are heart warming, some funny, some sad and one I found rather disturbing and heartbreaking.

I have enjoyed this book. I think it is well written, mostly pleasant and an easy read. Not too serious, it covers many emotions throughout.

I absolutely would recommend this book, however, please do check trigger warnings.

I very much look forward to reading more from this author.

Thank you to #Netgalley, #PenguinPressUK and of course to #AgotaKristof for the change to read this book . Published 21 August 2025. #IDontCare.

What an interesting little goody bag of tricks. Ágota Kristóf has taught me the merits of truly 'short' stories: less than 10 pages a pop is great; less than 5, even better! You might think this would leave you wanting for more each time, but i came away from I Don't Care a wholly satisfied reader.

Thematically, this collection is pervaded by ennui, aimlessness, solitude (that often won't admit it to itself), and the search for something you either lost as a child, or have never found but always known was missing. Some stories are more allegorical and/or surreal, featuring dreams and nightmares and unthreatening ghosts; others take pointed, acerbic jabs at things like marriage, family and male auteurs.

I'd recommend this book to anyone currently going through a reading rut, or anyone who looks at a 20-page chapter and has to do breathing exercises first. Its length makes it a very low-pressure read, but that doesn't mean there isn't plenty to chew on. Not every story was for me, but there's something in here for everyone.

Several short stories, many mere fragments of stories, with no discernible red thread. Some seem to have a marginal horrific element (typically in the punchline), while others do not. Some have a point of sorts, while many others do not and remain glimpses into something (without knowing what that something is).

Frankly - I was quite disappointed. I expected a lot, mostly due to the reviews, including those by famous authors. Overall, the impression this collection left on me is that of something disjointed and half-baked. I can't but feel that the positive reviews reflect some sort of pretentious need to seem sophisticated by liking this author's work. I personally found most of the stories here more akin to what teenagers write in highschool for their homework assignments than serious literature.

Waste of time. The best thing about this was the brevity. I can't recommend it to anyone who seriously likes books, literature, or short stories.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy in return for an honest review.

A worthy read by the great author.
This is a collection of short stories that feel nostalgic, nihilistic or emotional depending on the story.
I like the writing though I wish these were longer and more complicated.

I Don't Care is a collection of very short stories by Ágota Kristóf selected by the author herself and translated from French by Chris Andrews. The stories are sharp, minimalistic and mostly marked by stinging irony. The writing is chillingly unsentimental and fiercely brutal. These starkly honest anecdotes or poetic vignettes with a philosophical lilt stand true to the title chosen for the collection - the author doesn't care if she make our jaws drop or spines shudder. 

The opening story ‘I Have Given Up Eating’ is a pretty good indicator of what lies ahead. ‘The Invitation’ loosely reminded me of a scene from the movie The Great Indian Kitchen where the men flamboyantly assume the full responsibility of cooking on an evening only to leave a greater & nastier mess behind for the women. 'A Northbound Train' is an unsettling story of a sculpture of a man hugging a dog. Stories like ‘The Death of a Worker’ and ‘The Product’ lament the loss of a life spent addicted to work. 

Some stories revolve around relationships -  the ones that have mother & a brother-sister duo in the title give a chill, while the last story ‘The Father’ is moving. Though each story delivers an impression, The Streets is my pick for the most fav story. Sharing some lines below from the story -

“He wanted to see them in the morning light, and again in the afternoon shadows, when it was raining, and once again when there was fog, or moonlight.
He became a voyeur. A voyeur of houses. He had no interest in the people who lived there. Only in the houses and the streets. The streets! For him, the ingredients of happiness were few: wandering the streets, walking the streets, sitting down when he was weary.” 

I learnt of Ágota Kristóf from reviews of her much appreciated novel The Notebook Trilogy. I am keener than ever on reading it. I Don't Care allows readers to have a taste of the author's writing. Her brevity without a compromise on clarity is stunning. I loved this collection, my first read for Women in Translation month and a solid start.

A copy of Agota Kristof's The Proof has been sitting on my bookshelf reproachfully for far too long, which prompted me to read this copy of I Don't Care. And I'm really glad I did. Its mixture of bleakness, obtuseness and very dark humour is quietly compelling in a collection of mostly very short stories. Specifics of place or character are rare but that makes the stories work like quiet spells, drawing you in before concluding before you're ready. Don't read them if you are wedded to lengthy descriptions or character portraits, do read them if you are keen on a very European, questioning sensibility. I'll read her other books as soon as I can now.

✨ 𝗜 𝗗𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗯𝘆 Á𝗴𝗼𝘁𝗮 𝗞𝗿𝗶𝘀𝘁ó𝗳

📖 A stark, minimalist collection of short stories exploring exile, loss, violence, and human disconnection
🧊 Spare, haunting prose that says as much in silence as in speech
🌍 Stories that cross borders—geographical, emotional, and moral—with precision and restraint

There’s something quietly arresting about this collection—it’s different, unsettling, and utterly absorbing. I read it in one sitting.

In 𝘐 𝘋𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘊𝘢𝘳𝘦, Ágota Kristóf proves that emotional impact doesn’t require elaborate language. Kristóf delivers short, piercing stories that unfold like fables—but much darker, and without the comfort of resolution. Themes of death, estrangement, and moral ambiguity thread through every page.

What makes the book unforgettable is Kristóf’s style: cold, clear, and exacting. Her prose is stripped of emotion, yet never emotionally empty. Each sentence lands like a quiet blow. The stories are unsettling because they don’t guide your reaction—they simply present cruelty, absurdity, or loneliness without commentary.

Some of the most striking pieces include 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘐𝘯𝘷𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘈 𝘕𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘩𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘹𝘦, and 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘣𝘰𝘹—each one capturing a different aspect of exile and internal fracture. Whether it’s a violent gesture, an unfinished goodbye, or a moment of surreal detachment, these stories linger in the mind long after reading.

That same minimalism, however, may pose a challenge. The tone can feel unrelentingly bleak, and the stories vary in strength—some deeply resonant, others more like enigmatic fragments. Readers looking for traditional narrative arcs or emotional warmth may find the collection emotionally distancing. And while Kristóf’s vision is uncompromising, some may wish for more variation or context.

Still, 𝘐 𝘋𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘊𝘢𝘳𝘦 is a singular work—stark, strange, and moving in its restraint. Kristóf offers a voice from exile that refuses to be softened for anyone’s comfort.

💡For those open to fiction that challenges form and feeling.

I loved this collection. Ágota Kristóf writes sharp and punchy short stories. Voice-driven and wacky (in a good way). My favourite story was "The Axe" but I loved pretty much all of them which is a sign of a strong collection. Camilla Grudova blurbed this book, so I had to check it out. She has great taste. She described these stories as fairytales and I think that's really interesting. I would recommend this collection to lovers of flash fiction. I'm super keen to check out the rest of her work that's been translated.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Press UK for the early review copy.

Agota Kristof's 'The Notebook' Trilogy is one of my all time favourites and I had hoped to find some gems in this collection.

But, despite overlap in themes and style, this is not a collection of beautifully crafted short stories (and in fact, the Notebook wasn't either so I should have known better). The title is very well chosen in fact...

It's almost flash fiction and the stories are so short they often leave you dissatisfied. They are quite dark, including the humour. Zooming out, they are about outsiders, about (not) belonging, coming from nothing, being nobody.

If you are interested in Agota Kristof's writing, I would definitely start with the Notebook and not with this collection.

Ágota Kristóf is an author I have wanted to read for a while, her biography alone is very intriguing. She fled her native Hungary for Switzerland in the context of the anticommunist revolution being suppressed by the Soviet military. There she experienced exile and loneliness. She eventually left her husband and started to write in French, a language with which she had a conflicted relationship due to not feeling as though she could fully express herself through it, but when she started writing in her native Hungarian, she lost the impulse to write.
All these aspects of her life are really palpable in “I Don’t Care”, a slim compilation of 25 very short stories. They are packed with emotional intensity, some of them more like prose poems than conventional narratives. The stories are often cryptic and dreamlike, offering fragments of meaning that don’t always resolve into clear conclusions. At times, they can be confusing, and not all of them are easy to grasp on first reading. They felt like literary Edward Hopper paintings.
What unites much of the collection is a sense of nostalgia, for childhood, for home, and for the familiar streets of vanished cities. It feels like being lost and yearning for something that will not come back. There is also a darker thematic undercurrent: stories of loss, death, family and the often toxic behavior of men, the tone veering into the bleak and the depressing at times.
Ágota Kristóf’s writing is poetic and symbolic, and does not offer easy interpretations, but these short stories leave a strong impression.
Readers who enjoy short stories and don’t mind a bit of ambiguity will likely find I Don’t Care a compelling, if at times unsettling, experience.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Press for an ARC of this book for my honest review.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DMYUhUjoBMe/?igsh=cXdtYmU2aXE5Zno1

A frustrating, though admittedly very short, reading experience. There are flashes of genius in Kristóf’s prose, but very few of these stories have enough meat to them to really impress on the mind.

I Don't Care by Ágota Kristóf is a collection of short, mimimalist and fragmentary works with an air of melancholy. Sharp and to the point.

*I Don’t Care* is a piercing, minimalist collection of short stories and fragments by Ágota Kristóf, best known for *The Notebook*. Written in her stark, haunting style, these pieces reflect on exile, language, loneliness, and the brutal absurdity of life. Many are just a page or two long, yet deliver an emotional punch far beyond their length.

Kristóf, who wrote in French after fleeing Hungary, distills trauma and detachment into crystalline prose. *I Don’t Care* is spare but deeply human—bleak, yes, but laced with bitter irony and insight. A must-read for fans of her trilogy, or for anyone drawn to literature that stares into silence and finds unsettling truths there.