The Ballad of the Last Guest - by Peter Handke

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.

Gregor returns home 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, but Gregor is surprised to find his sister holding an infant. He, the older brother, is to be the child's godfather--though he also carries with him the secret of his younger brother's death.

In the end, Gregor is never quite able to stay put. He is drawn out into the world, into the streets and alleys of what is now a city, to the cinema, the soccer stadium, the forest, and above all the old fruit orchard, now overgrown and beyond saving. As he walks, the present and the past become intertwined--memories of childhood surface, and inner voices enter into dialogue.

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

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

"[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 was 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, all published by FSG. Handke's dramatic works include Kaspar and the screenplay for Wim Wenders's Wings of Desire. Handke is the recipient of many major literary awards, including the Georg Büchner, Franz Kafka, and Thomas Mann Prizes and the International Ibsen Award. 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 at Wesleyan University. She has translated more than thirty books, including previous works by Peter Handke and works by Werner Herzog, Günter Grass, Christoph Hein, and Goethe.