Austria
The Austrian session will take place on Tuesday, June 15 (6pm) at The Austrian Cultural Forum -- 11 E 52nd Street (between Fifth and Madison avenues)
To register for this session, send us an email at
austria.nyc@europeanbookclub.org
The Book: Night Work, by Thomas Glavinic
The routine of daily life is such that one goes to sleep with the security that tomorrow will arrive, just as it did today.
Jonas, a young professional in contemporary Vienna, wakes up one morning to discover that he may be the last living being on earth. The highways are empty. The restaurants are empty. The animals have disappeared. The radio only emits white noise and the internet is down. No one answers his phone calls.
Setting off across Europe in search of his girlfriend or any sign of life, Jonas’s harrowing expedition is a dark reflection of man’s private journey.
Night Work is a fast-paced, psychological thriller, exploring the darkness that lies deep within us all. With skilled, efficient prose, Glavinic unsettles our notion of the human condition and the artifice of civilization, peeling back the onion to reveal our greatest fears, that no one is in charge and that something unthinkable and unjust is about to occur. A riveting story about paranoia, madness, and fear,
Night Work is a small gem of a book.
The Author:
Thomas Glavinic, born in 1972, has worked as a taxi driver, farmer, and copywriter. His first novel,
Carl Haffner’s Love of the Draw, made the
Daily Telegraph Book of the Year list. He lives in Vienna.
Reviews:
Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. What if you woke up one morning to find that all life, both human and animal, had vanished without warning? That's what happens one ordinary July day in Vienna to Jonas, the hero of this extraordinary apocalyptic novel by Austrian author Glavinic (
The Camera Killer). Jonas's newspaper hasn't been delivered, his TV isn't picking up any channels, and the Internet isn't working. Outside, the normally busy streets are empty, though clocks are running. Jonas begins to explore the city, leaving notes with his cell number in the hope that someone else is out there. As the days turn into weeks, he sets up video and audio equipment to record anything that might hint at another survivor. Predictably, he increasingly loses his grasp on reality. By leaving much to the reader's imagination, Glavinic creates a more subtle if no less nightmarish mood than such similar books as
The Day of the Triffids and
I Am Legend.
The Bookseller
A literary tour de force.
Scotland on Sunday
There’s wakefulness to the zeitgeist in the greatest of authors, and on the evidence of
Night Work, Glavinic is a truly great author.
The routine of daily life is such that one goes to sleep with the security that tomorrow will arrive, just as it did today.
Jonas, a young professional in contemporary Vienna, wakes up one morning to discover that he may be the last living being on earth. The highways are empty. The restaurants are empty. The animals have disappeared. The radio only emits white noise and the internet is down. No one answers his phone calls.
Setting off across Europe in search of his girlfriend or any sign of life, Jonas’s harrowing expedition is a dark reflection of man’s private journey. Night Work is a fast-paced, psychological thriller, exploring the darkness that lies deep within us all. With skilled, efficient prose, Glavinic unsettles our notion of the human condition and the artifice of civilization, peeling back the onion to reveal our greatest fears, that no one is in charge and that something unthinkable and unjust is about to occur. A riveting story about paranoia, madness, and fear, Night Work is a small gem of a book.