A curious dedication...

I took a moment this afternoon to clear off some shelf space, deciding which books will stay and which will go. In the process, I ran across a book by a certain Viktor Mort, published in Russian by Viktor Kamkin in 1969, titled Хэппи Енд (Happy End, as transliterated into Russian).

The dedication reads:

Эту книгу посвещаю нашим детям и внукам, которые ее никогда не прочтут.

I dedicate this book to our children and grandchildren, who will never read it. [my translation]

Now that's an eye-catcher! My initial attempts to find out more about the author and the book (search for: Виктор Морт Хэппи Енд) were overwhelmed with Russian-language hits having to do with Harry Potter and references to Волан-де-Морт (as the dark lord Voldemort is known to Russian readers), but there was one hit that led to an extract of a review published in 1970. The money quote:

Старость, болезни, смерть, а главное, неблагодарность, одиночество и сознание полной ненужности старых людей - вот основные темы скорбной книги Виктора Морта...

Old age, illnesses, death, and most of all, ingratitude, solitude, and the recognition of the complete irrelevance of old people, these are the principal themes of Viktor Mort's doleful book.... [my translation]

Hmm. That explains the dedication, I guess.

The book stays, at least for now.

Cheers...