{"title":"Thomas Bernhard","description":"\u003cp\u003eThomas Bernhard's works delve deeply into the complexities of human thought and emotion, exploring themes of isolation, obsession, and existential despair. His distinctive prose often challenges conventional narration, blending dark humour with incisive cultural critique that invites readers to question societal norms and artistic traditions.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFrom intense novels to compelling plays and reflective prose, Bernhard's writing offers a unique lens on the human condition, marked by lyrical intensity and relentless introspection. Readers seeking richly layered narratives that combine intellectual rigor with emotional depth will find his oeuvre compelling and provocative.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"wittgensteins-nephew-by-thomas-bernhard-9780571349982","title":"Wittgenstein's Nephew","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e'Furious, obsessive, scathing, absolutely hilarious and oddly beautiful.'\u003c\/em\u003e - Claire Messud\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIt is 1967. Two men lie bedridden in separate wings of a Viennese hospital. The narrator, Thomas Bernhard, is stricken with a lung ailment; his friend Paul, nephew of Ludwig Wittgenstein, is suffering from one of his periodic bouts of madness.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAs their friendship quickens, these two eccentric men discover in each other an antidote to their feelings of despair on the unexpected strength of what they share - a spiritual symmetry forged by their love of music, black humour, disgust for bourgeois Vienna, and fear of mortality.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA restless blend of fiction and memoir, \u003cem\u003eWittgenstein's Nephew\u003c\/em\u003e is not only a haunting meditation on the artist's struggle to maintain a foothold on reality, but an impassioned eulogy to a real-life friendship.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Allen \u0026 Unwin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46277412552940,"sku":"9780571349982","price":32.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780571349982.jpg?v=1742423908"},{"product_id":"goethe-dies-by-thomas-bernhard-9780857427052","title":"Goethe Dies","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis collection of four stories is, as long-time fans of Thomas Bernhard would expect, bleakly comic and inspiringly rancorous.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe subjects of the stories vary: in one, Goethe summons Wittgenstein to discuss the \u003ci\u003eTractatus Logico-Philosophicus\u003c\/i\u003e; 'Montaigne: A Story in Twenty-Two Instalments' tells of a young man sealing himself in a tower to read; 'Reunion', meanwhile, satirises that very impulse to escape. The final story rounds out the collection by making Bernhard himself a victim, persecuted by his greatest enemy, his very homeland of Austria.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eUnderpinning all these variously comic, tragic, and bitingly satirical excursions is Bernhard's abiding interest in, and deep knowledge of, the philosophy of doubt.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46711646126316,"sku":"9780857427052","price":19.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/7196053482493.jpg?v=1754238306"},{"product_id":"concrete-by-thomas-bernhard-9780571349951","title":"Concrete","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e'Probably nothing exists that would prepare one for Bernhard's machined vehemence, though once you've read one, you perhaps start to crave the bitter taste and the savage not-quite-humour... Genius.' - Michael Hofmann\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eInstead of the book he is meant to write, Rudolph, a Viennese musicologist, produces this dark and grotesquely funny account of small woes writ large, of profound horrors detailed and rehearsed to the point of distraction. We learn of Rudolph's sister, whose help he invites then reviles; his 'really marvellous' house which he hates; the suspicious illness he carefully nurses; his ten-year-long attempt to write the perfect opening sentence; and his escape to the island of Majorca, which turns out to be the site of someone else's very real horror story, and ultimately brings him no release from himself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eConcrete\u003c\/i\u003e is Thomas Bernhard at his very finest: a bleakly hilarious insight into procrastination and failure that scratches the murky depths of our souls.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Allen \u0026 Unwin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46825664839916,"sku":"9780571349951","price":27.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/11175623482391.jpg?v=1758108660"},{"product_id":"prose-by-thomas-bernhard-9780857425768","title":"Prose","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e“His manner of speaking, like that of all the subordinated, excluded, was awkward, like a body full of wounds, into which at any time anyone can strew salt, yet so insistent, that it is painful to listen to him,”\u003c\/i\u003e from \u003ci\u003eThe Carpenter\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe Austrian playwright, novelist, and poet Thomas Bernhard (1931–89) is acknowledged as among the major writers of our time. The seven stories in this collection capture Bernhard’s distinct darkly comic voice and vision—often compared to Kafka and Musil—commenting on a corrupted world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFirst published in German in 1967, these stories were written at the same time as Bernhard’s early novels \u003ci\u003eFrost\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eGargoyles\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe Lime Works\u003c\/i\u003e, and they display the same obsessions, restlessness, and disarming mastery of language. Martin Chalmer’s outstanding translation, which renders the work in English for the first time, captures the essential personality of the work.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe narrators of these stories lack the strength to do anything but listen and then write, the reader in turn becoming a captive listener, deciphering the traps laid by memory—and the mere words, the neverending words with which we try to pin it down. Words that are always close to driving the narrator crazy, but yet, as Bernhard writes “not \u003ci\u003ecompletely\u003c\/i\u003e crazy.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e“Bernhard's glorious talent for bleak existential monologues is second only to Beckett's, and seems to have sprung up fully mature in his mesmerizing debut.”—From \u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e, on \u003ci\u003eFrost\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e“The feeling grows that Thomas Bernhard is the most original, concentrated novelist writing in German. His connections . . . with the great constellation of Kafka, Musil, and Broch become ever clearer.” —George Steiner, \u003ci\u003eTimes Literary Supplement\u003c\/i\u003e, on \u003ci\u003eGargoyles\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46853290164460,"sku":"9780857425768","price":35.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/7183213482493.jpg?v=1759195315"},{"product_id":"the-rest-is-slander-by-thomas-bernhard-9781803094496","title":"The Rest Is Slander","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA collection of previously untranslated stories from a master of twentieth-century Austrian literature, Thomas Bernhard.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe cold increases with the clarity,\" said Thomas Bernhard while accepting a major literary prize in 1965. That clarity was the postwar realisation that the West's last remaining cultural reference points were being swept away by the ever-greater commodification of humankind. Collecting five stylistically transitional tales by Bernhard, all of which take place in sites of extreme cold, this volume extends that bleak vision of the master Austrian storyteller.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eUngenach\u003c\/em\u003e, the reluctant heir of an enormous estate chooses to give away his legacy to an assortment of oddballs as he discovers the past of his older brother, who was murdered during a career in futile colonialist philanthropy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eThe Weatherproof Cape\u003c\/em\u003e, a lawyer tries to maintain a sense of familial solidarity with a now-dead client with the help of an unremarkable piece of clothing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eMidland in Stilfs\u003c\/em\u003e casts a jaundiced eye on the laughable efforts of a cosmopolitan foreigner to attain local authenticity on a moribund Alpine farmstead.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eAt the Ortler\u003c\/em\u003e, two middle-aged brothers—one a scientist, the other an acrobat—meditate on their unusual career paths while they climb a mountain to reclaim a long-abandoned family property.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAnd in \u003cem\u003eAt the Timberline\u003c\/em\u003e, the unexpected arrival of a young couple in a mountain village leads to the discovery of a scandalous crime that casts a shadow on the personal life of the policeman investigating it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46853348163820,"sku":"9781803094496","price":35.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/27045053482829.jpg?v=1759197766"},{"product_id":"the-rest-is-slander-five-stories-by-douglas-robertson-9781803090672","title":"The Rest Is Slander – Five Stories","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA collection of previously untranslated stories from a master of twentieth-century Austrian literature, Thomas Bernhard.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e“The cold increases with the clarity,” said Thomas Bernhard while accepting a major literary prize in 1965. That clarity was the postwar realisation that the West’s last remaining cultural reference points were being swept away by the ever-greater commodification of humankind. Collecting five stylistically transitional tales by Bernhard, all of which take place in sites of extreme cold, this volume extends that bleak vision of the master Austrian storyteller.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eUngenach\u003c\/em\u003e, the reluctant heir of an enormous estate chooses to give away his legacy to an assortment of oddballs as he discovers the past of his older brother, who was murdered during a career in futile colonialist philanthropy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eThe Weatherproof Cape\u003c\/em\u003e, a lawyer tries to maintain a sense of familial solidarity with a now-dead client with the help of an unremarkable piece of clothing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eMidland in Stilfs\u003c\/em\u003e casts a jaundiced eye on the laughable efforts of a cosmopolitan foreigner to attain local authenticity on a moribund Alpine farmstead.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eAt the Ortler\u003c\/em\u003e, two middle-aged brothers—one a scientist, the other an acrobat—meditate on their unusual career paths while they climb a mountain to reclaim a long-abandoned family property.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAnd in \u003cem\u003eAt the Timberline\u003c\/em\u003e, the unexpected arrival of a young couple in a mountain village leads to the discovery of a scandalous crime that casts a shadow on the personal life of the policeman investigating it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46853348425964,"sku":"9781803090672","price":39.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/27006813482829.jpg?v=1759197779"},{"product_id":"three-novellas-by-thomas-bernhard-9780226044323","title":"Three Novellas","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThomas Bernhard is \"one of the masters of contemporary European fiction\" (George Steiner); \"one of the century's most gifted writers\" (\u003ci\u003eNew York Newsday\u003c\/i\u003e); \"a virtuoso of rancor and rage\" (\u003ci\u003eBookforum\u003c\/i\u003e). And although he is favourably compared with Franz Kafka, Samuel Beckett, and Robert Musil, Thomas Bernhard still remains relatively unknown in America.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eUninitiated readers should consider \u003ci\u003eThree Novellas\u003c\/i\u003e a passport to the absurd, dark, and uncommonly comic world of Bernhard. Two of the three novellas here have never before been published in English, and all of them show an early preoccupation with the themes—illness and madness, isolation, tragic friendships—that would obsess Bernhard throughout his career.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eAmras\u003c\/i\u003e, one of his earliest works, tells the story of two brothers, one epileptic, who have survived a family suicide pact and are now living in a ruined tower, struggling with madness, trying either to come fully back to life or finally to die.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003ePlaying Watten\u003c\/i\u003e, the narrator, a doctor who lost his practice due to morphine abuse, describes a visit paid him by a truck driver who wanted the doctor to return to his habit of playing a game of cards (watten) every Wednesday—a habit that the doctor had interrupted when one of the players killed himself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe last novella, \u003ci\u003eWalking\u003c\/i\u003e, records the conversations of the narrator and his friend Oehler while they walk, discussing anything that comes to mind but always circling back to their mutual friend Karrer, who has gone irrevocably mad. Perhaps the most overtly philosophical work in Bernhard's highly philosophical oeuvre, \u003ci\u003eWalking\u003c\/i\u003e provides a penetrating meditation on the impossibility of truly thinking.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThree Novellas\u003c\/i\u003e offers a superb introduction to the fiction of perhaps the greatest unsung hero of twentieth-century literature. Rarely have the words \u003ci\u003esuffocating\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eintense\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eobsessive\u003c\/i\u003e been meant so positively.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46853355864300,"sku":"9780226044323","price":54.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/12671513482268.jpg?v=1759198367"},{"product_id":"walking-by-thomas-bernhard-9780226311043","title":"Walking","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThomas Bernhard is “one of the masters of contemporary European fiction” (George Steiner); “one of the century’s most gifted writers” (\u003ci\u003eNewsday\u003c\/i\u003e); “a virtuoso of rancour and rage” (\u003ci\u003eBookforum\u003c\/i\u003e). And although he is favourably compared with Franz Kafka, Samuel Beckett, and Robert Musil, it is only in recent years that he has gained a devoted cult following in America.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA powerful, compact novella, \u003ci\u003eWalking\u003c\/i\u003e provides a perfect introduction to the absurd, dark, and uncommonly comic world of Bernhard, showing a preoccupation with themes—illness and madness, isolation, tragic friendships—that would obsess Bernhard throughout his career. \u003ci\u003eWalking\u003c\/i\u003e records the conversations of the unnamed narrator and his friend Oehler while they walk, discussing anything that comes to mind but always circling back to their mutual friend Karrer, who has gone irrevocably mad.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003ePerhaps the most overtly philosophical work in Bernhard’s highly philosophical oeuvre, \u003ci\u003eWalking\u003c\/i\u003e provides a penetrating meditation on the impossibility of truly thinking.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46853359665388,"sku":"9780226311043","price":33.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/15338713482268.jpg?v=1759198650"},{"product_id":"of-seven-fir-trees-and-the-snow-by-thomas-bernhard-9781803095455","title":"Of Seven Fir Trees and the Snow","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThese newly translated stories chart the making of a literary provocateur, one experiment and ethical dilemma at a time.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBefore Thomas Bernhard became one of the most provocative voices in modern literature, he was a young writer testing the limits of form and subject. \u003cem\u003eOf Seven Fir Trees and the Snow\u003c\/em\u003e offers an unprecedented look at his evolution, from his earliest published work at nineteen to the emergence of his unmistakable voice. Translated into English for the first time, in these stories, Bernhard moves from stark naturalism to fairy-tale simplicity to the eerie, stripped-down surrealism reminiscent of science fiction. At the same time, he grapples with the fundamental ethical questions that would define his career: how does one navigate personal autonomy in a world fractured by the upheavals of the twentieth century?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSelected and arranged in chronological order by Douglas Robertson, this collection traces Bernhard's transformation from an ambitious chronicler of Austrian rural life to a writer in dialogue with the broader currents of world literature. A rare glimpse into the making of a literary icon, this volume is essential reading for both longtime admirers and those discovering Bernhard's singular genius for the first time.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46871426695404,"sku":"9781803095455","price":47.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/27054643482829.jpg?v=1759880127"},{"product_id":"woodcutters-by-thomas-bernhard-9781400077595","title":"Woodcutters","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFiercely observed, often hilarious, and “reminiscent of Ibsen and Strindberg” (\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e), this exquisitely controversial novel was initially banned in its author’s homeland.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA searing portrayal of Vienna’s bourgeoisie, \u003ci\u003eWoodcutters\u003c\/i\u003e begins with the arrival of an unnamed writer at an ‘artistic dinner’ hosted by a composer and his society wife—a couple he once admired and has come to loathe. The guest of honour, a distinguished actor from the Burgtheater, is late. As the other guests wait impatiently, they are seen through the critical eye of the writer, who narrates a silent but frenzied tirade against these former friends, most of whom have been brought together by Joana, a woman they buried earlier that day.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eReflections on Joana’s life and suicide are mixed with these denunciations until the famous actor arrives, bringing an explosive end to the evening that even the writer could not have seen coming.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47398092570860,"sku":"9781400077595","price":46.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/13144013482686.jpg?v=1773741881"},{"product_id":"correction-by-thomas-bernhard-9780099442547","title":"Correction","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThomas Bernhard\u003c\/em\u003e is one of the masters of contemporary European fiction. After Kafka's and Canetti's, his sensibility is one of the most acute, the most capable of exemplary images and gestures, in modern literature.\" — George Steiner, \u003cem\u003eTimes Literary Supplement\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eRoithamer, a character based on Wittgenstein, has committed suicide having been driven to madness by his own frightening powers of pure thought. We witness the gradual breakdown of a genius ceaselessly compelled to correct and refine his perceptions until the only logical conclusion is the negation of his own soul.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47401470689516,"sku":"9780099442547","price":29.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/10514303482223.jpg?v=1773795605"},{"product_id":"save-yourself-if-you-can-six-plays-by-douglas-robertson-9781803092584","title":"Save Yourself If You Can – Six Plays","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA collection of six Bernhard plays, all in English for the first time.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eSave Yourself If You Can\u003c\/em\u003e is a collection of six plays that span the entirety of Thomas Bernhard’s career as a dramatist. The plays collected in this long-awaited addition to Bernhard’s oeuvre in English—\u003cem\u003eThe Ignoramus and the Madman\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Celebrities\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eImmanuel Kant\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Goal Attained\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eSimply Complicated\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eElizabeth II\u003c\/em\u003e—traverse somber lyricism and misanthropy to biting satire and glorious slapstick.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThey explore themes that will be familiar to longtime readers of Bernhard, but here they are presented in a subtly different register, attuned to the needs of the stage.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47432360755436,"sku":"9781803092584","price":56.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781803092584.jpg?v=1774555427"},{"product_id":"the-voice-imitator-by-kenneth-j-northcott-9780226044026","title":"The Voice Imitator","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Austrian playwright, novelist, and poet Thomas Bernhard (1931-89) is acknowledged as among the major writers of our times. At once pessimistic and exhilarating, Bernhard's work depicts the corruption of the modern world, the dynamics of totalitarianism, and the interplay of reality and appearance.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn this stunning translation of \u003ci\u003eThe Voice Imitator\u003c\/i\u003e, Bernhard gives us one of his most darkly comic works. A series of parable-like anecdotes—some drawn from newspaper reports, some from conversation, some from hearsay—this satire is both subtle and acerbic. What initially appear to be quaint little stories inevitably indict the sterility and callousness of modern life, not just in urban centres but everywhere. Bernhard presents an ordinary world careening into absurdity and disaster. Politicians, professionals, tourists, civil servants—the usual victims of Bernhard's inspired misanthropy—succumb one after another to madness, mishap, or suicide.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe shortest piece, titled \"Mail,\" illustrates the anonymity and alienation that have become standard in contemporary society: \"For years after our mother's death, the Post Office still delivered letters that were addressed to her. The Post Office had taken no notice of her death.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn his disarming, sometimes hilarious style, Bernhard delivers a lethal punch with every anecdote. George Steiner has connected Bernhard to \"the great constellation of Kafka, Musil, and Broch,\" and John Updike has compared him to Grass, Handke, and Weiss. \u003ci\u003eThe Voice Imitator\u003c\/i\u003e reminds us that Thomas Bernhard remains the most caustic satirist of our age.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47461673664748,"sku":"9780226044026","price":28.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780226044026-the-voice-imitator.jpg?v=1774974692"},{"product_id":"collected-poems-by-james-reidel-9781803090504","title":"Collected Poems","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBernhard’s \u003cem\u003eCollected Poems\u003c\/em\u003e is a key to understanding Bernhard’s irascible black comedy found in virtually all of his writings—even down to his last will and testament.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBeloved Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard (1931–89) began his career in the early 1950s as a poet. Over the next decade, Bernhard wrote thousands of poems and published four volumes of intensely wrought and increasingly personal verse, with such titles as \u003cem\u003eOn Earth and in Hell\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eIn Hora Mortis\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eUnder the Iron of the Moon\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBernhard’s early poetry, bearing the influence of Georg Trakl, begins with a deep connection to his Austrian homeland. As his poems saw publication and recognition, Bernhard seemed always on the verge of joining the ranks of Ingeborg Bachmann, Paul Celan, and other young post-war poets writing in German.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eDuring this time, however, his poems became increasingly more obsessive, filled with undulant self-pity, counterpointed by a defamatory, bardic voice utterly estranged from his country. All of this resulted in a magisterial work of anti-poetry—one that represents Bernhard’s own harrowing experience with his leitmotif of success and failure, which makes his fiction such a pleasure.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThere is much to be found in these pages for Bernhard fans of every stripe.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47462720110828,"sku":"9781803090504","price":34.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781803090504-collected-poems.jpg?v=1775022120"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.pro\/collections\/thomas-bernhard.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}