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On a Dark Night I Left My Silent House

A short, powerful new novel by one of the greatest writers in the German language.

On a Dark Night I Left My Silent House is Nobel Prize-winning author Peter Handke's evocative, moving, often fantastic, novel about one man's conflict with himself and his journey toward resolution.

During one night shift, an unnamed, middle-aged pharmacist in Taxham, an isolated suburb of Salzburg, tells his story to a narrator. The pharmacist is known and well-respected, but lonely and estranged from his wife. He feels most comfortable wandering about in nature, collecting and eating hallucinogenic mushrooms.

One day he receives a blow to the head that leaves him unable to speak, and the narrative is transformed from ironic description into a collection of sensual impressions, observations and reflections. The pharmacist, who is now called the driver, sets out on a quest, travelling into the Alps with two companions — a former Olympic skiing champion and a formerly famous poet — where he is beaten and later stalked by a woman. He drives through a tunnel and has a premonition of death, then finds himself in a surreal, foreign land. In a final series of bizarre, cathartic events, the driver regains his speech and is taken back to his pharmacy — back to his former life, but forever changed.

A powerful, poetic exploration of language, longing and dislocation in the human experience, On a Dark Night I Left My Silent House reveals Handke at his magical best.

  • Format
  • paperback
  • Pages
  • 192
  • Language
  • english
  • ISBN
  • 978-1-250-76722-6
  • EAN
  • 9781250767226
  • Release date
  • 2020