A Whole Life
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A Whole Life
Narrated by:
Sam Peter Jackson
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Narrated by:
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Sam Peter Jackson
About this listen
Short-listed, Man Booker International, 2016
Short-listed, International Dublin Literary Award, 2017
Andreas lives his whole life in the Austrian Alps, where he arrives as a young boy taken in by a farming family. He is a man of very few words and so, when he falls in love with Marie, he doesn't ask for her hand in marriage, but instead has some of his friends light her name at dusk across the mountain. When Marie dies in an avalanche, pregnant with their first child, Andreas' heart is broken. He leaves his valley just once more, to fight in WWII—where he is taken prisoner in the Caucasus—and returns to find that modernity has reached his remote haven....
Like John Williams' Stoner or Denis Johnson's Train Dreams, A Whole Life by Robert Seethaler is a tender book about finding dignity and beauty in solitude. An exquisite novel about a simple life, it has already demonstrated its power to move thousands of people with a message of solace and truth. It looks at the moments, big and small, that make us what we are.
©2015 Robert Seethaler, Charlotte Collins (P)2021 Macmillan Publishers International LimitedListeners also enjoyed...
Critic reviews
Robert Seethaler's quietly mesmerizing novel - elemental in both tone and subject - shows what joy and nobility can be found in a life of hardship, patience and bereavement. It is at once heart-rending and heart-warming. A Whole Life, for all its gentleness, is a very powerful book. (Jim Crace)
Against the backdrop of a literary world that often seems crowded with novels yelling "Look at me!", it's refreshing to read a story marked by quiet, concentrated attention . . . Seethaler's scenes of mountain life are realised with spare, almost surreally vivid images. But what is perhaps most remarkable about this remarkable novel is the way that it continually weaves past, present and future into a single fabric. (Adam Lively)
A Whole Life is a lovely contemplation of a life in solitude in a remote valley, into which the modern world slowly intrudes. (Ian McEwan)
Now another of these special, calm narratives that penetrate the joy and grief, the tiny comforts of being alive and the experiences which shape an individual has arrived . . . As haunting and as spare as Stoner. It has been sensitively and astutely translated into English by Charlotte Collins . . . a gentle, tender work devoid of sentimentality yet so evocative and moving . . . No praise is too high for A Whole Life. Its daunting beauty lingers. This is a profound, wise and humane novel that no reader will forget. (Eileen Battersby)
BBC World Book Club was right
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sublime story , great Narrater
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This is a sublime book. The language is superb, spare and yet richly descriptive. It is one of the best books I have ever read.
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Andreas Egger is abandoned by his mother as a small child with a purse of money tied around his neck for whoever will take him. Unfortunately he is taken by a brutal man who puts him to work on his farm as soon as he is old enough. His new father administers regular beatings to the boys naked body for minor misdemeanours. On one such occasion the boy's leg is permanently damaged leaving him with a life-long limp.
But the boy never cries and grows strong until the day he refuses to accept any more beatings. This is one of the many significant life events which include Andreas getting a tough job on the building of the first cable cars for the early development of the skiing industry. Andreas always works in lumpen manual jobs which are often dangerous and low paid, sleeping outdoors or in barns.
He marries a woman and when there looks to be a promise of pleasure and happiness in his life, she is killed in an avalanche together with their unborn child.
Andreas is left homeless and devastated, and becomes even further alienated and solitary. The story line is not linear and jumps around to events which include Andreas being conscripted into the army during the Second World War. He is sent to the Caucasus where he is taken prisoner by the Russians.
After the war, he returns to his labours, often living in places little better than shacks and caves. He witnesses the moon landing, the provision of film and television and the beauty of Grace Kelly.
There is a circular story from the book's start when he rescues a hermit who runs off before reaching civilisation but Andreas discovers the lost body many years later.
This book is thoughtful, moving and poignant as well as bleak and stoic. Unlike many books it is not overwritten but relatively short yet covers a whole life.
Bleak and stoic
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Quite.dreary
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