EUROPEAN BOOK CLUB | European Book Club: Austrian Session
In this session the novel “Night Work” by the Austrian writer Thomas Glavinic will be discussed. The session will be moderated by Martin Rauchbauer, deputy director of the Austrian Cultural Forum.
Content of the book: The routine of daily life is such that one goes to sleep with the security that tomorrow will arrive, just as it did today.
Jonas, a young professional in contemporary Vienna, wakes up one morning to discover that he may be the last living being on earth. The highways are empty. The restaurants are empty. The animals have disappeared. The radio only emits white noise and the internet is down. No one answers his phone calls. Setting off across Europe in search of his girlfriend or any sign of life, Jonas’s harrowing expedition is a dark reflection of man’s private journey. Night Work is a fast-paced, psychological thriller, exploring the darkness that lies deep within us all. With skilled, efficient prose, Glavinic unsettles our notion of the human condition and the artifice of civilization, peeling back the onion to reveal our greatest fears, that no one is in charge and that something unthinkable and unjust is about to occur. A riveting story about paranoia, madness, and fear, Night Work is a small gem of a book.
The author, Thomas Glavinic, one of the rising stars among young Austrian writers, was born in 1972. His first novel, Carl Haffner’s Love of the Draw, made the Daily Telegraph Book of the Year list. He lives in Vienna. Thomas Glavinic visited New York during the Krautgarden Festival in March 2008.
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