Melville House Books

Thomas Bernhard

Twenty years after the death of the great Austrian novelist Thomas Bernhard, his German publisher, Suhrkamp, has announced a “sensational release” scheduled for next year — a previously-unpublished “prose text”by Bernhard. A report in the Austrian Times notes that “Bernhard was infamous for criticising Austria in many of his works, lambasting the country for being ‘Catholic National-Socialist’. Conservative forces accused him of being a ‘Nestbeschmutzer’, someone who dirties his own nest and denigrates his country.” It also notes that next year has nonetheless been declared “Thomas Bernhard year” … but it doesn’t give any indication of what that means. Much like a Bernhard novel, the report trusts the reader to figure out the essentials for him or herself.

Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.