Extinction: A Novel (Vintage International) - Softcover

Bernhard, Thomas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1400077613 ISBN 13: 9781400077618

Publisher: Vintage, 2011

Synopsis

The last work of fiction by one of the twentieth century’s greatest artists, Extinction is widely considered Thomas Bernhard’s magnum opus.
 
Franz-Josef Murau—the intellectual black sheep of a powerful Austrian land-owning family—lives in Rome in self-imposed exile, surrounded by a coterie of artistic and intellectual friends. On returning from his sister’s wedding on the family estate of Wolfsegg, having resolved never to go home again, Murau receives a telegram informing him of the death of his parents and brother in a car crash. Not only must he now go back, he must do so as the master of Wolfsegg. And he must decide its fate. Written in the seamless, mesmerizing style for which Bernhard was
famous, Extinction is the ultimate proof of his extraordinary literary genius.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

"Not every raving maniac is a genius. Many are called but few are chosen. It's a pretty exclusive club, but Bernhard made it... Like Swift, Bernhard writes like a sacred monster... He is a remarkable literary performer: a man who goes to extremes in ways that vivify our sense of human possibilities. however destructive."

-- Richard Locke, Wall Street Journal

"To date America has been sadly immune to the charm and challenge of Bernhard's work and the American public has deprived itself of the deep and serious pleasure of reading one of the great writers of this century... Already in Europe The Loser is known as one of the great works of world literature. Its arrival on these shores is a significant literary event." -- Thomas McGonigle, New York Newsday

"The book is an exemplar of linguistics scholar Roman Jakobson's 'axis of combination,' the stuff, the very bones of prose. This faith in what might be called the 'candor' of prose gives the book an enormous verve and power."

-- Gilbert Sorrentino, Washington Post Book World

"The appearance in English of The Loser two years after Bernhard's death is an occasion for both celebration and sadness. Celebration, because it provides yet another opportunity to draw attention to one of the century's most gifted writers: sadness, because it reminds one yet again how few people, and not only those in the English-speaking world, have read him."

-- David Plott, Philadelphia Inquirer

From the Inside Flap:

e Thomas Bernhard, arguably Austria's most influential novelist of the postwar period, and one of the greatest artists in all twentieth-century literature in the German language, his magnum opus.

Extinction, Bernhard's last work of fiction, takes the form of the autobiographical testimony of Franz-Josef Murau, the intellectual black sheep of a powerful Austrian land-owning family. Murau lives in Rome in self-imposed exile from his family, surrounded by a coterie of artistic and intellectual friends. On returning from his sister's wedding to the "wine-cork manufacturer" on the family estate of Wolfsegg, having resolved never to go home again, Murau receives a telegram informing him of the death of his parents and brother in a car crash. Not only must he now go back, he must do so as the master of Wolfsegg. And he must decide its fate.

Divided into two halves, Extinction explores Murau's rush of memories of Wolfsegg as he stands at his Roman window considering the fat

About this edition

• Publisher: Vintage
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1400077613
• ISBN 13: 9781400077618
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336