Thomas Bernhard (1931-1989) has been hailed by Gabriel Josipovici
as 'Austria's finest postwar writer' and by George Steiner as 'one
of the masters of contemporary European fiction.' Faber Finds is
proud to reissue a selection of four of Bernhard's finest novels.
The Loser centres on a fictional relationship between piano
virtuoso Glenn Gould and two of his fellow students who feel
compelled to renounce their musical ambitions in the face of Gould's
incomparable genius. One commits suicide, while the other - the
obsessive, witty, and self-mocking narrator - has retreated into
obscurity. Written as a monologue in one remarkable unbroken
paragraph, The Loser is a brilliant meditation on success,
failure, genius, and fame.
