To the Back of Beyond
A Novel
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Man Booker Prize nominee Peter Stamm explores in his sixth novel what it means to be in the middle of nowhere, in mind and in body.
Happily married with two children and a comfortable home in a Swiss town, Thomas and Astrid enjoy a glass of wine in their garden on a night like any other. Called back to the house by their son's cries, Astrid goes inside, expecting her husband to join her in a bit. But Thomas gets up and, after a brief moment of hesitation, opens the gate and walks out.
No longer bound by the ties of his everyday life--family, friends, work--Thomas begins a winding trek across the countryside, exposed as never before to the Alpine winter. At home, Astrid wonders where he's gone, when he'll come back, whether he's still alive.
Following Thomas and Astrid on their separate paths, To the Back of Beyond becomes ultimately a meditation on the limits of freedom and on the craving to be wanted.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Stamm (Agnes) takes readers on a dazzling journey through Switzerland and matrimony. Thomas, following his return from a family vacation, suddenly decides to exit his garden, leaving behind his wife, Astrid, and their small children, Ella and Konrad. Thinking about how his marriage has stagnated and unable to arrive at a solution, Thomas wanders without aim, barely stopping to eat and sleep and using limited resources to survive. His roaming takes him to a brothel, through miles of woods and forest, and from village to village. Back home, Astrid is left to tell her children their father has vanished and to cover for Thomas, lying to his employer and those in the community about his whereabouts. She eventually reports Thomas's disappearance to police despite fears of being ostracized by the community. On the suggestion from one of the officers, she uses online statements of Thomas's bank transactions to track his movements near Lake Zurich. Stamm's superb descriptions of alpine nature and internal human conflict (Thomas, wandering through the Alps, often reflects on his wife and family fondly but doesn't want to return home) are aided by Hofmann's excellent translation. Even when Thomas's actions cause pain for those he has promised to love, his introspection makes his impulse to walk away from everything less condemnable. This is a moving work about freedom and wanting.
