The Ballad of the Last Guest - by Peter Handke Hardcover

Book Synopsis

"[Handke is] a supremely talented writer . . . The Ballad of the Last Guest conjures the spirit of [Kafka and Camus]." --Tobias Grey, Financial Times

A novel about a man who returns home, only to find that home is now unrecognizable, by the Nobel laureate Peter Handke.

A man named Gregor returns to his hometown from another continent. The landscape, formerly dotted with small villages, has been absorbed into the outskirts of a large city, both familiar and foreign at the same time. His father sits playing cards, waiting for him, while his sister holds a new baby. All the while, Gregor carries with him the secret of his younger brother's death.

No matter his intentions, Gregor is unable to stay put. He is drawn back out into the world, into the streets and alleys of what is now a city, to the cinema, the soccer stadium, the remains of the forest, and above all the old fruit orchard, now overgrown and beyond saving. As he walks, the present and the past intertwine; memories of childhood surface, and inner voices enter into dialogue.

Revisiting many of the settings and themes of the Nobel laureate Peter Handke's previous works, The Ballad of the Last Guest takes stock of the changes that the twenty-first century has wrought on the land--and on human beings.

Review Quotes

"[Handke is] a supremely gifted writer whose existential acuteness in novels such as The Goalkeeper's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick and Repetition can be set alongside Kafka and Camus. The Ballad of the Last Guest, expertly translated by Krishna Winston, conjures the spirit of both writers."
--Tobias Grey, Financial Times

"Perceptive . . . A dense and thorough exploration of one man's grappling with change and loss . . . Enlightening."
--Publishers Weekly

"The Ballad of the Last Guest feels like a love song to a world and society that is slowly vanishing . . . Krishna Winston's translation beautifully re-creates the gentle rhythm of Gregor's steps . . . [this] mesmerizes the reader."
--Catherine Venner, World Literature Today

"[An] elegant mood piece . . . The Ballad of the Last Guest is saturated with a reflective spirit . . . An impressionistic novel that casts a memorable spell."
--Shelf Awareness

About the Author

Peter Handke as born in Griffen, Austria, in 1942. His many novels include The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick, A Sorrow Beyond Dreams, My Year in the No-Man's-Bay, and Crossing the Sierra de Gredos. Handke's dramatic works include Kaspar and the screenplay for Wim Wenders's Wings of Desire. In 2019, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "for an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has explored the periphery and the specificity of human experience."

Krishna Winston is the Marcus L. Taft Professor of German Language and Literature, Emerita, at Wesleyan University. She has translated more than thirty books, including previous works by Peter Handke and works by Goethe, Werner Herzog, Günter Grass, and Christoph Hein.