Austria

[Rhian]

Elfriede Jelinek's "The Piano Teacher" -- she won the Nobel.

[Juliane]

Stefan Zweig's "Chess Story", Robert Musil's "The Man Without Qualities"

[Anna]

About Elfriede Jelinek - I don't know why she got the Nobel Price. "The Piano teacher" and all her books are just weird.

[Carol]

The Radetzky March by Joseph March. I thought The Piano Teacher was pretty strange, too, but I read it for a book club and was living in Vienna at the time, so I finished it.

[Ronan Noane]

Hi Carol,
you probably mean The Radetzky March by Joseph ROTH , in stead of March.
He is indeed an amazing author, one of my favourites!
his other works are worth reading too.

[Carol]

Thanks Noane, for catching that, I did mean Joseph Roth. The Radetzky March wasn't a great hit in my book club, but I liked it a lot and would like to read more by him . . . so many books, so little time!

[Jimmy]

Wittgenstein's Nephew by Thomas Bernhard
The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick A Novel by Peter Handke

[Daisy]

Sleeping in Flame
This takes place partially in Vienna and partially in Los Angeles. The author is American; does that count? It's still a very interesting book, but maybe because it takes place in the era when I lived in Vienna.

[Julia]

For those who read in german i can recommend the novels of wolf haas...he's written a whole series of crime novels creating the figure of "detective brenner" - a really hilarious loser protagonist and the setting is always very "austrian". most of them have been put into film versions as well. unfortunately i didn't find an english translation so far, but maybe some of you will enjoy them anyway (Daisy, you've been living in vienna, haven't you?)

[Jessica]

Ingeborg Bachmann "Malina" - a strange one but worth reading

[[deleted user]]

Extinction by Thomas Bernhard