On a Dark Night I Left My Silent House

By Peter Handke

Book Overview

On a Dark Night I Left My Silent House is Nobel Prize-winning author Peter Handke's evocative, moving, often fantastic, novel about one man's conflict with himself and his journey toward resolution.

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 companions--a former Olympic skiing champion and a formerly famous poet--where 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 pharmacy--back to his former life, but forever changed.

A powerful, poetic exploration of language, longing and dislocation in the human experience, On a Dark Night I Left My Silent House reveals Handke at his magical best.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1250767229
• ISBN13: 9781250767226
• Release Date: April 2020
• Publisher: Picador USA
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Dream travel for the mushroom enthusiast

I agree. The main review gives a good description and appreciation for this interesting novel. This is the first book by handke that I have read or even known about. I picked it out totally by accident. I enjoy this style of writing though it is not for everyone. I will certainly seek out other work by him. The main character is a very lonesome type of individual and the mushroom fetish is perfect to compliment his personality. The landscaping and dreamscaping is super as well as the interplay between the travelling characters. Needless to say this is probably a novel that few people are familiar with but I for one am glad to have happened upon such a gifted writer. Translation from German makes it even better.

Isolation Examined

This was a fantastic, albeit somewhat depressing, book. I agree with the other reviewers here. But I would add that the book is a moving exploration of man's ultimate and inherent isolation.

Handke's Characteristic Alchemy

The editorial review here is pretty accurate, insofar as summations can ever do justice to a Handke novel, which rely little on plot or human characterization for their power. The novel really takes off when Handke puts his protagonist on the "steppes"--which turn out to be the plains of north-central Spain--and has him explore and experience himself in nature. Readers who liked "My Year in the No-Man's Bay" or "Weight of the World" will like this; here are long passages equally evocative and magical. Undoubtedly there are significances here that literati will find resonant, and perhaps metaphorical parallels that students of European politics will identify, but as an exploration into consciousness, into human interactions with nature and time and memory, this small novel delivers an experience that is very satisfying indeed.