Produktdetaljer
Biographical note
Willem Frederik Hermans (1921-1995) was one of the most prolific and versatile Dutch authors of the twentieth century. In 1977 he received the Dutch Literature Prize - the most prestigious literary prize in the Netherlands. He is considered one of the three most important authors in the Netherlands in the postwar period, along with Harry Mulisch and Gerard Reve. Hermans' An Untouched House was published by Pushkin Press in 2018 to rave reviews. The Darkroom of Damocles and Memories of a Guardian Angel are also forthcoming.A comedy of worldy disengagement trembling on the edge of tragedy, all the more hilarious for being related in Hermans' best poker-faced manner
- J.M. Coetzee,
Hermans is one of the most important European authors of the second half of the twentieth century
- Cees Nooteboom,
In Ina Rilke's lively and graceful translation, Hermans' novel does what so few do: it makes one see and feel life afresh
- Paul Binding, Independent
Fluently translated, and blending droll comedy with existential calamity in ways that repeatedly wrong foot the reader, Beyond Sleep is a disconcerting delight
Daily Mail
No thumbnail description of Beyond Sleep can begin to suggest the richness and complexity of a novel that humbled many a Dutch critic into nail-biting sessions of rereading
- Willem Otterspeer, Wall Street Journal
As bright and black as anything contemporary. It has the energy and ruthlessness of farce and a terrifying deadpan style, and it ends in appalling catastrophe
Bookforum
Successful and entertaining... A master at work, with a fine, light touch.
The Complete Review
A masterpiece of world literature
Die Welt
A Kafka and Céline-inspired novel, which mixes...the black Romanticism of the 19th-century and the cold, laconic thriller art of the 20th-century
Frankfurter Allgemeine
Praise for An Untouched House
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Profoundly unsettling and haunt[s] the mind for long afterwards
Sunday Times, Books of the Year
I was struck by the compressed farce and horror in the 1951 Dutch novella An Untouched House by Willem Frederik Hermans, in David Colmer's new translation
Spectator, Books of the Year
A shocking Dutch classic... remarkable... It takes an hour or two to read, but An Untouched House is the kind of book that stays with you for ever
Guardian
Shocking... properly unsettling... It would certainly be good to have a lot more of Hermans's work available here
Sunday Times
I was overwhelmed
- Sam Jordison, Guardian, Choose your Book of 2018
By any light, this eloquent marvel teases, bewilders and unnerves
Times Literary Supplement
Taut... dark, thrillerish story, ably translated by David Colmer, carries the pungent tang of authenticity
New Statesman
Underrated
- Ian McEwan, TLS
Bleak, hilarious, angry, ruthless and plain. [Hermans is] as alarming as a snake in the breadbin. He's also hugely entertaining
Scotsman
'A stark, funny and graphic exploration of the folly of war... Bravo Pushkin Press for seeking out yet another international gem
A Life in Books (blog)
Short but powerful novella... I was filled with admiration for its unflinching depiction of what happens when war numbs the human heart and destroys empathy
The Book Jotter (blog)
Disturbing, haunting, and brilliant... an excellent antidote to misty eyed nostalgia for blitz or Dunkirk spirit
Desperate Reader (blog)
Not for the faint-hearted
Lizzy's Literary Life (blog)
An expertly crafted story... A small novel that packs a strong, hard punch
Complete Review
Crackling with uneasy tension... A beautiful new edition of a powerful and timeless slim Dutch masterpiece, written in spare and crisp style that brings to mind Camus
The Lady
The Dutch have hailed him as their greatest novelist, and now, slowly, Europe is getting to know him
- Milan Kundera, Le Monde
A dark wartime vision that evokes Koestler, Orwell, and Vonnegut.
Kirkus
A violent climax without equal in modern literature
- Cees Nooteboom,
As disturbing and powerful as anything by Joseph Heller or Kurt Vonnegut
- Michel Faber, Guardian
A literary tour de force
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Not only would Dutch literature be considerably less without Hermans; so would European literature
Suddeutsche Zeitung