Home | Books By Year | Books from 2006
Night Work (Glavinic novel)
Buy Night Work (Glavinic novel) now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the book. And once you've experienced the book, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
'Night Work' is a 2006 novel by Austrian writer Thomas Glavinic. The book was translated into English in 2008 by John Brownjohn for Edinburgh-based publisher Canongate.
Plot summary
The novel, set in modern-day Vienna, is a post-apocalyptic exploration around themes of solitude and existential philosophy.
The plot concerns a central character, Jonas, who wakes up one day to discover that everyone else has vanished from the city, perhaps the world, without trace; he appears to be the only person left.
As he attempts to discover what could possibly explain such a situation, the days pass and he begins to realise that he is performing strange activities when asleep. A struggle ensues as Jonas tries to control his unconscious actions while he continues to search in vain for other human life.
Critical reception
The UK edition received a generally positive reception from critics. 'The Guardian' referred to the book as being at times genuinely horrific because of the authors skill in manipulating the reader's constant anxiety that [he] won't, indeed can't, deliver a solution to his own mystery. The Independent claimed that the novel, functions both as an outstanding fictionalisation of Freud's essay The Uncanny, and as a superior literary thriller packed with invention and suspense. The Scotland on Sunday said it was strong on intrigue and seriously frightening.
References
*
Buy Night Work (Glavinic novel) now from Amazon
<-- Return to books from 2006