Synopses & Reviews
Andreas Egger knows every path and peak of his mountain valley, the source of his sustenance, his livelihood — his home.
Set in the mid-twentieth century and told with beauty and tenderness, Robert Seethaler's A Whole Life is a story of man's relationship with an ancient landscape, of the value of solitude, of the arrival of the modern world, and above all, of the moments, great and small, that make us who we are.
Review
"The book's prose has a directness and detail that helps set off the moments of genuine wisdom and restrained poetry... It is at this point that you realize why the novel should be doing so well in Germany, and why it is so urgent for the rest of us: it can guide its readers to make the best of their lives, however they turn out." Sunday Telegraph
Review
"A Whole Life is a provocatively ambitious title for this spare, novella-length work... Flecked with profundity [and] dark humor." John Williams, The New York Times
Review
"One of my treasured discoveries this year was Robert Seethaler’s A Whole Life . . . From the very first page you know it’s about to rearrange your mental universe. It is a breathtaking, heartbreaking story that encapsulates a universe of change, loss, resilience." Anuradha Roy, The Millions
Review
The life chronicled in Seethaler’s poignant novel is at first glance unremarkable: Andreas Egger begins and ends his life in an Alpine valley village where he arrives after his mother’s death in 1902 and to which he returns in 1951 after years as a POW in Russia. Egger however contains multitudes: subjected to childhood beatings that leave him with a permanent limp he stands up to his abusive uncle and goes on to become an expert cable car company employee as well as a devoted husband and father. But the mountainous land he loves—and through which in his middle age he leads groups of hiking tourists—is far from serene. The titanic forces of nature and politics determine Egger’s arduous course through the 20th century. Not always successfully Seethaler seeks to avoid sentimentality. Readers will discover in his contained prose a vehicle for keen insight and observation: Egger touched for the first time by his future wife experiences “a very subtle pain... more profound than any had encountered” and later watching the Moon landing with his neighbors in their new parish hall he feels “mysteriously close and connected to the villagers down here on the darkened Earth.” Nearing his end Egger “couldn’t remember where he had come from and ultimately he didn’t know where he would go. But he could look back without regret... with a full throated laugh and utter amazement.” (Sept.)" Publishers Weekly Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved."
About the Author
Robert Seethaler was born in Vienna in 1966 and is the author of four previous novels. He also works as an actor, most recently in Paolo Sorrentino’s Youth. He lives in Berlin.
Charlotte Collins studied English at Cambridge University. She worked as an actor and radio journalist in both
Germany and the U.K. before becoming a literary translator. She previously translated Robert Seethaler’s novel The Tobacconist.