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list price: $10.99
edition:eBook
category: Fiction
published: Oct 2015
ISBN:9781487000752
publisher:
House of Anansi Press Inc
imprint:
Anansi International
Description
Shortlisted for The 2017 National Translation Award
Shortlisted for The 2017 International Dublin Literary Award
Shortlisted for The 2016 Man Booker International Prize
Andreas lives his whole life in the Austrian Alps, where he arrives as a young boy taken in by a farming family. He is a man of very few words and so, when he falls in love with Marie, he doesn't ask for her hand in marriage, but instead has some of his friends light her name at dusk across the mountain. When Marie dies in an avalanche, pregnant with their first child, Andreas' heart is broken. He leaves his valley just once more, to fight in WWII — where he is taken prisoner in the Caucasus — and returns to find that modernity has reached his remote haven…
Like John Williams' Stoner or Denis Johnson's Train Dreams, A Whole Life is a tender book about finding dignity and beauty in solitude. An exquisite novel about a simple life, it has already demonstrated its power to move thousands of readers with a message of solace and truth. It looks at the moments, big and small, that make us what we are.
Awards
- Short-listed, National Translation Award
- Winner, Anton-Wildgans Prize
- Short-listed, The Man Booker International Prize
Editorial Reviews
Do yourself a favour and read this book. It is food for the soul — so quiet,so subtle, yet with resounding reverberations.
— WDR
Robert Seethaler's quietly mesmerizing novel - elemental in both tone and subject - shows what joy and nobility can be found in a life of hardship, patience and bereavement. It is at once heart-rending and heart-warming. A Whole Life, for all its gentleness, is a very powerful book.
— Jim Crace
The Austrian writer Robert Seethaler’s A Whole Life is a lovely contemplation of a life in solitude in a remote valley, into which the modern world slowly intrudes.
— Sunday Times
Every nuance, every word, every sentence — everything is precisely in place. An admirable achievement for such a slim volume.
— Die Welt
The story of Andreas Egger is both heartbreaking and uplifting…the beauty of this slim volume makes the reader pause and think about what it means to be alive.
— Toronto Star
It's refreshing to read a story marked by quiet, concentrated attention . . . a reaction to all around us that is prolix, narcissistic and mindlessly technology-worshipping. What is perhaps most remarkable about this remarkable novel is the way that it continually weaves past, present and future into a single fabric. A deeply moving book
— Sunday Times
[A] quiet reflection on solitude, transformation and contentment… a lovely story, and stands as a testament to the fact only we can define our happiness, and life is what you make it.
— Winnipeg Free Press
Every word has a place. Words evoke an imagery that is imprinted in the reader's mind… [a]poignant song of a fulfilled life
— Sukasa Reads blog
The delicate, elegant song of a fulfilled life . . . Full of wonder.
— Literarische Welt
[Seethaler has] succeeded in crafting a book which has to be described as more poignant and harrowing than anything written in a very long time.
— taz
A magnificent author who moves us so profoundly with an unforgettable book.
— Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Seethaler shows that for even the most ordinary people, life is an extraordinary adventure — and he does so tenderly and memorably.
— Mail on Sunday
