Home
On a Dark Night I Left My Silent House
Barnes and Noble
On a Dark Night I Left My Silent House
Current price: $16.00
Barnes and Noble
On a Dark Night I Left My Silent House
Current price: $16.00
Size: Paperback
Loading Inventory...
*Product information may vary - to confirm product availability, pricing, shipping and return information please contact Barnes and Noble
During one night shift, an unnamed, middle-aged pharmacist in Taxham, an isolated suburb of Salzburg, tells his story to a narrator. The pharmacist is known and well-respected, but lonely and estranged from his wife. He feels most comfortable wandering about in nature, collecting and eating hallucinogenic mushrooms.
One day he receives a blow to the head that leaves him unable to speak, and the narrative is transformed from ironic description into a collection of sensual impressions, observations and reflections. The pharmacist, who is now called the driver, sets out on a quest, travelling into the Alps with two companionsa former Olympic skiing champion and a formerly famous poetwhere he is beaten and later stalked by a woman. He drives through a tunnel and has a premonition of death, then finds himself in a surreal, foreign land. In a final series of bizarre, cathartic events, the driver regains his speech and is taken back to his pharmacyback to his former life, but forever changed.
A powerful, poetic exploration of language, longing and dislocation in the human experience,
reveals Handke at his magical best.