Peter Handke returns with a novel of grief, due from Gallimard on November 5
"La ballade du dernier client" follows a man who conceals his brother's death, in a book that Livres Hebdo describes as a crossing of mourning.
Gallimard will publish Peter Handke's new novel, La ballade du dernier client, on November 5, according to Livres Hebdo. The Austrian writer, awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2019, continues a body of work built on wandering, silence and the texture of everyday speech.
According to the outlet's summary, the book follows a man who says nothing of his brother's death, and traces the paths he takes through that unspoken loss. Livres Hebdo describes it as a traversal of mourning in which light, words and hospitality still manage to open ways through.
No further details on length, translator or plot have been given. Handke writes in German; as with his earlier books, the French edition appearing from Gallimard implies a translation, though the source does not name the translator.
Sources
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