In 1980, Julia Kristeva's essay on abjection, Pouvoirs de l'horreur, was first published in France and subsequently translated into English as Powers of horror. Nicholas Chare's book provides a critical and careful reassessment of Kristeva's often misunderstood writings on the abject and a crucial appraisal of the value the concept abjection holds for the study of the witnessing and representation of the Holocaust.