A new novel of artful understatement about mortality, estrangement,
and the absurdity of life from the acclaimed author of "Unformed
Landscape" and "In Strange Gardens"
On a day like any other, Andreas changes his life. When a routine
doctor's visit leads to an unexpected prognosis, a great yearning
takes hold of him--but who can tell if it is homesickness or
wanderlust? Andreas leaves everything behind, sells his Paris
apartment; cuts off all social ties; quits his teaching job; and
waves goodbye to his days spent idly sitting in cafes--to look for
a woman he once loved, half a lifetime ago. The monotony of days
has been keeping him in check; now he hopes for a miracle and for a
new beginning.
Andreas' travels lead him back to the province of his youth, back
to his hometown in Switzerland where he returns to familiar
streets, where his brother still lives in their childhood home, and
where Fabienne, a woman he was obsessed with in his youth, visits
the same lake they once swam in together. Andreas, still consumed
with longing for his lost love and blinded by the uncertainty of
his future, is tormented by the question of what might have been if
things had happened differently.
Peter Stamm has been praised as a "stylistic ascetic" and his prose
as "distinguished by lapidary expression, telegraphic terseness,
and finely tuned sensitivity" (Bookforum). In "On a Day Like This,"
Stamm's unobtrusive observational style allows us to journey with
our antihero through his crises of banality, of living in his empty
world, and the realization that life is finite--that one must live
it, as long as that is possible.
Praise for Unformed Landscape:
"Sensitive and unnerving. . . . An uncommonly intimate work, one
that will remind the reader of his or her own lived experience with
a greater intensity than many of the books that are published right
here at home." --The New Republic Online
"If Albert Camus had lived in an age when people in remote
Norwegian fishing villages had e-mail, he might have written a
novel like this."--The New Yorker
"Unformed Landscape has a refreshing purity, a lack of delusion, a
lack of hype."--Los Angeles Times
General
Imprint: |
Other Press Professional
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
April 2011 |
First published: |
April 2011 |
Authors: |
Peter Stamm
|
Translators: |
Michael Hofmann
|
Dimensions: |
194 x 127 x 14mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback - Trade
|
Pages: |
238 |
ISBN-13: |
978-1-59051-499-3 |
Categories: |
Books >
Fiction >
General & literary fiction >
Modern fiction
|
LSN: |
1-59051-499-8 |
Barcode: |
9781590514993 |
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