The Diary of Mr. Pinke

The Diary of Mr. Pinke is poet Ewald Murrer’s first, and most renowned, full-length work of prose. Written as a compilation of diary entries, it relates the strange happenings witnessed by a group of villagers – among whom are a rabbi, a magic goat, an ancient Gypsy, a family of unicorn hunters, and a fortuneteller – in an atmospherically surreal Galicia where people and beasts float across the landscape, leaving only cryptic traces of their passage. Murrer’s imaginative poetic prose gives the narrative a unique and personal lyricism, while his combination of folklore and myth draws on the creative tradition of the best Central European writing.