Not how I expected. Soft graceful story of one man‘s simple life, with historical markers of the 20 century.
Not how I expected. Soft graceful story of one man‘s simple life, with historical markers of the 20 century.
A delight. Small book, a quick read. Great translation. Short listed for Booker in 2015. Not sure how I acquired it. Just sitting on my TBR shelf.
A whole lot happens in the story of Egger's whole life but it is told in a quiet, calm and poetic way. Horrible things happen to Egger but he carries on and so does the reader. He is 4 when he arrives at the small mountain village in Austria in the early 1900s where he will spend most of his life alone. Solitude, nature, resilience are themes in this beautiful book. Highly recommend it.
This extraordinary novel in only about 100 pages tells Andreas Egger's life story from his childhood until the day he days in the Austrian Alps.
1.on a February morning in the year 1933 Andreas Egger lifted the dying goatherd Johannes Kalischka, known to all the valley dwellers as Horned Hanes, off his sodden and rather sour-smelling pallet to carry him down to the village along the three kilometre mountain path that lay buried beneath a thick layer of snow. (Phew!)
2. 149 3. Intuition 4. See the first sentence 5. Green 11. 2015
This is for the next meeting of my book club. Only a short read so should be nice and quick ⏰
This short story was such a wonderful read. The story of Andreas Egger is very much like his character; simple, hard-working, and (at times) very lonely. It's beautifully and simply written covering Egger's life in the mountains of Austria. I really enjoyed this.
A story of man‘s relationship with ancient landscape, of the value of solitude, of the arrival of the modern world, and above all, of the moments, great and small, that make us who we are. #booksintranslation
This picture does not even do the cover justice. So beautiful.
My goodness. It's been a long while since a book has made me weep like this ('A Little Life' and 'Stoner' being the last). It's a short tale about Andreas Egger and his life in the mountains. I wanted to share my favourite quotes from it but there were just too many. Beautifully translated, I wanted to read it all over again before I'd even finished it. I'll remember AE forever. Gorgeous artwork too.
@Saari84 Kannst du dazu was sagen❓
https://www.hanser-literaturverlage.de/buch/ein-ganzes-leben/978-3-446-24645-4/
Ich bin zwiegespalten (und habe es deswegen [noch] nicht entliehen), denn es weckt in mir die Erwartung einer Mischung aus „Die Frau des Zeitreisenden“ und „Die Bücherdiebin“.
Irgendwie wie ist mir gerade nicht so nach Liebesgeschichte mit herzzerreißender Sterbebettszene. Oder vertue ich mich da komplett❓
Weißt du was❓
@Saari84 Du liest viele interessante Bücher. Mit Robert Seethaler hattest du mich gleich. Ich hatte weder vom Autor selbst noch von einem seiner Bücher vorher etwas gehört.
Aber „Die Biene ? und der Kurt ?♂️“ – allein wegen des Titels wollte ich es mir ansehen. ?
Meine Onleihe hat von ihm jedoch nur das hier.
A little masterpiece.
(Details from the book's cover.)
Picked this one up at the library yesterday.
Has anyone read it?
Look at the gorgeous details on the cover.
An absolutely wonderful novel about a quiet, hard-working man living a simple life in the mountains of Austria. I loved it from start to finish. Beautifully written. Reminded me a bit of Kent Haruf's novels which I love love love.
Almost forgot... #catsoflitsy ...Teddy🐾 Ok, off to work! Everybody have a lovely day🙋👩🏻🌾
Spent the day at Mont Blanc in France yesterday. No #bookinthewild, except in my head: the setting brought Robert Seethaler's wonderful novel to mind, especially the part about building cable lifts to transport people up steep slopes. Temperature at Chamonix: 28C. At the top: 0C. #riotgram from a glorious sunny day.
"Then he would think about his future, which extended infinitely before him, precisely because he expected nothing of it."
One of those rare gems of a novel. Each word having its place, not an excess or deficit.
Beautiful, lots of tabbing going here. 📎
Happy Mother's Day to me #2! 😽 Thank you Shona for the head's up on Ibrahim & Seethaler.
These two ended up in my basket as I was shopping for my secret santa...it was literally impossible not to leave with a book or two for me 😳
This is a lovely little book that follows the life of a man that definitely got the short end of the stick. Nevertheless, he manages to live fully through moments of joy and sorrow. This book, like its protagonist, moves quietly while paying close attention to what makes an ordinary life worth living.
#libraryhaul Picked up a few more books when I was at the library (of course). The bottom 4 are all selections for #nonfictionchallenge17
From humble beginnings as an abused orphan, Egger spends most of his life in the same German mountain valley, shaping and being shaped by it. Seethaler somehow makes the odd, the dramatic, and the banal bits of narrative resound with the force of images within a poem, of shouts up a mountain incomplete without their responding echoes. All this within 150 pages. If you loved Williams's Stoner, this is another book to fall into.
46 pages into this short little novel, I can say that all the rave reviews might just have been understated...
That was absolutely beautiful. A very quick and short read, and not one word is wasted, but there is plenty of emotion contained in the simple prose. Absolutely stunning
Reading this one for my book club. We're a year old this month:)
Only 150 pages, and it needs not one word more. A wonderful contemplation on a life and the change one can witness in a lifetime. For those who know my usual areas I can promise those that don't like genre, that there are no swords, no magic, and only one (necessary) spaceship.
What a beautiful book! I totally understand why it was nominated to the Man Booker Int, a pity that it didn't win. It reminded me of Stoner by John Williams. 📖📖📖📖
Starting this one now. It was shortlisted for the Man Booker International (2016).
A beautiful read that speaks so much to our disconnect from the small moments of our lives. In this depiction of one man's life in a small village there is everything- a microcosm of the world really. Shortlisted for the Booker International- read it!
Just finished this short, unputdownable book. Egger is quiet, often sad and lives a tragic whole life. Yet the thing is strangely uplifting. Also the descriptions of the Alps are beautiful.
Between like and so so. I liked it, because beauty of the story lies in its simplicity and overall atmosphere- solitude and silence, with poetic description of mountains and nature. So so- because of just interesting read, not special.
1st line and 4th book (for me) from The Man Booker International Prize.