A young geologist hungry for fame journeys to the mountains of Norway's Arctic north on a research expedition, but soon realizes he's more likely be eaten alive by mosquitoes than win glory. Freezing, wet and plagued by insomnia, Alfred becomes increasingly desperate and paranoid under the midnight sun, until he takes a catastrophic decision.
This dazzlingly dark classic is at once a gripping survival story, a mordant farce and a peerless evocation of mental disintegration.
Publisher: Pushkin Press
ISBN: 9781782276265
Number of pages: 320
Dimensions: 198 x 129 mm
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 - _
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
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