Product Description
The time is an unspecified modernity, the place possibly Europe. Absence follows four nameless people -- the old man, the woman, the soldier, and the gambler -- as they journey to a desolate wasteland beyond the limits of an unnamed city.
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Customer Reviews (2)

Misleading description
This book was described as a trade paperback, but the book that showed up was a mass market paperback.One would figure that a company that sold books would know the difference, but hey, maybe that's just me.The book was in great shape in any case.

a book to be considered
this is early work of handke's which, judging by its sales rating, isn't so popular. just why this is - well, it's a mystery to me; this is not merely his best work, but it's the work which has made him one of the great german novelists of the past century. these three short novels (the goalie's anxiety at the penalty kick; short letter, long farewell; a sorrow beyond dreams) capture handke at his experimental best - breaking down language as he breaks down character - while also providing incrediblly piercing psychological insight. though his words weave webs (chunky webs), instead of being lost, the reader begins to appreciate a new sense of language, thereby openning new understanding toward character and psychology. goalie is the most difficult and most rewarding, but all three hold up well to handke's hard-handed word play. these novels also clearly benefit from the discoveries handke had made with his early stage works self accusation and offending the audience. though the book may prove a little difficult to find i recommend it. ... Read more

Product Description
"Once Again for Thucydides" is a collection of twelve short journals Peter Handke wrote on trips around the world, from the Balkans to the Pyrenees, from Salzburg to the sea of Hakkaido in Japan. In each journal, Handke concentrates on small things he observes, trying to capture their essence, their "simple, unadorned validity." What results is a word of remarkable precision, in which he uncovers the general appearance of such random things as a tree, a shoeshine man, a boat loading on a pier, and discovers their inner workings and mystery. Always, his writing hints at the unknown. Describing the snow melting in a garden or falling during an inland train ride through Japan, the glowworms illuminating the plains in Friuli, the tidal waters flowing and receding off the Atlantic coast of Spain, these amazing little "epics" reveal a narrator obsessed with the wonders of detail and marveling, as are we, at the scope and variety of the natural world. In the words of German writer Gerhard Meier, "Once Again for Thucydides" ends up being "a courageous and defiantly independent book."Amazon.com Review
History is not all battles and great leaders, nor huge socialforces and turbulent change. Instead, the Austrian novelist PeterHandke suggests in this set of prose-poem-like essays, it embodiessmall moments, tiny fragments of landscape and memory. Set mostly inpost-World War II Western Europe and the Balkans, his vignettes centeron history's forgotten people and places: a young girl in Yugoslavia"wearing a bright frayed bandage on her knee," an ash tree in Munichnear a triumphal arch "with its peculiar inscription, 'Dedicated tovictory--destroyed by war--admonishing peace.'" Perhaps the mosteffective essay is a small narrative of the different hats oneencounters in a Balkan city: kepis, berets, helmets, ski caps, fezzes,and all the other gear that separates one tribe fromanother. --Gregory MacNamee ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Beautifully written
This short read (90 pages) is a wonderful collection of descriptions Handke made while visiting different cities.Each description reveals an indulgent use of visual and even auditory imagery to open up the natural world and its influence on the observer.

Handke's fairy tale of an ash tree in Munich is an especially intriguing version of a classic genre.

Beauty of language - clarity of thought
These "travel" essays verge on being prose poems.Peter Handke uses close observation of the world around him to weave an image of the world within - both personal and universal.In this way he produces a remarkable study on the human condition.Add to your must read listespecially if you have any fondness for M. Duras or A. Ernaux. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume contains 22 stories and novellas, many appearing in English for the first time. Among the authors represented are Peter Handke, Alfred Andersch, Stefan Andres, Jurgen Becker, Ulla Merkewicz, Elisabeth Borchers, Gisela Elsner and Max von der Grun. ... Read more