The Afternoon of a Writer

Story
First published by Residenz Verlag Salzburg 1987
Suhrkamp | Insel
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USA & Canada (FSG), Spanish world rights (Trade edition: Alfaguara), Catalan rights (Edicions 62), Chinese simplex rights (Horizon), Brazilian Portuguese rights (Estação Liberdade), Portuguese rights (Relogio d'Agua), France (Gallimard), Italy (Ugo Guanda), Denmark (Batzer), Korea (Open Books), Japan (Hosei UP), Turkey (Alfa), Greece (Hestia)

Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Estonia (Loomingu Raamatukogu)


The Afternoon of a Writer / Nachmittag eines Schriftstellers
Story
First published by Residenz Verlag Salzburg 1987

Peter Handke’s story published in 1987 is set on an afternoon in December. Work at the desk is finished for the day, it won’t be continued until the following morning: an in-between-time, then. Nothing special happens, nothing extraordinary (not quite, it’s the first snow of the year.) But it’s precisely this time that has not yet been blocked by meaning that the writer turns his attention to on his walk from the desk into the city, from its centre to the periphery and all along the way...

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Peter Handke’s story published in 1987 is set on an afternoon in December. Work at the desk is finished for the day, it won’t be continued until the following morning: an in-between-time, then. Nothing special happens, nothing extraordinary (not quite, it’s the first snow of the year.) But it’s precisely this time that has not yet been blocked by meaning that the writer turns his attention to on his walk from the desk into the city, from its centre to the periphery and all along the way home.


1989, 91 pages
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Persons

Peter Handke, born in 1942 in Griffen, Austria, lives near Paris. His books have been translated into more than 40 languages. In 2019, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Peter Handke, born in 1942 in Griffen, Austria, lives near Paris. His books have been translated into more than 40 languages. In 2019, he was...


OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Snows of Yesteryear, Snows of Tomorrow
Year of Publication: 2025
Peter HandkeYear of Publication: 2025
As he walks, he gathers together the things he encounters, day by day, step by step: two crows at his feet, an apple with a bite taken out of it from the side of the trail, a swarm of flies “flying...
Rights sold to:

Sweden (Faethon), Bulgaria (Black Flamingo), Turkey (Everest), Greece (Vakxikon)

The Ballad of the Last Guest
Year of Publication: 2023
Peter HandkeYear of Publication: 2023

Gregor returns home from another continent. The landscape, formerly characterised by its many villages, has become an urban agglomeration, both familiar and foreign at the same time. His family...

Rights sold to:

English world rights (FSG), Spanish world rights and Catalan (Alianza), France (Gallimard), Italy (Guanda), Sweden (Faethon), Turkey (Sia Kitap), Greece (Hestia)

The Time and The Spaces
Year of Publication: 2022
Peter HandkeYear of Publication: 2022

Since the early seventies, Peter Handke has filled thousands of pages in notebooks. The slim books, which have to fit in every shirt and jacket pocket, are indispensable companions on every journey. They are used to record ideas for literary projects, but, most importantly, things that Handke has seen, read and heard. »I practised reacting to everything that happened to me immediately...

My Day in the Other Country
Year of Publication: 2021
Peter HandkeYear of Publication: 2021

His surroundings see him as a man possessed, »possessed not just by one, but by several, many, even countless demons«. During the day, he, a fruit grower by profession, walks through the village....

Rights sold to:

English world rights (FSG), Spanish world rights (Alianza), Catalan rights (Alianza), France (Gallimard), Italy (Guanda), Sweden (Faethon), Norway (Pelikanen), Finland (Lurra), Poland (Eperons Ostrogi), Serbia (Laguna), Slovenia (Beletrina), Greece (Kritiki)

 

The Second Sword
Year of Publication: 2020
Peter HandkeYear of Publication: 2020

Returning to the area southwest of Paris after years of being on the road, three days later the hero was forced to set out again. In contrast to previous explorations of the world, this time he...

Rights sold to:

English world rights (FSG), Spanish world rights (Alianza), Catalan rights (Alianza), Chinese simplex rights (Horizon), Chinese complex rights (Ecus), Russia (Eksmo), Brazilian Portuguese rights (Estação Liberdade), Portuguese rights (Relógio D’Água), France (Gallimard), Italy (Guanda), Netherlands (Wereldbibliotheek), Denmark (Batzer), Norway (Pelikanen), Poland (Eperons-Ostrogi), Romania (ART), Serbia (Laguna), Greece (Hestia), Armenia (Antares)

The Fruit Thief or A simple Trip into the Interior
Year of Publication: 2017
Peter HandkeYear of Publication: 2017

The Fruit Thief is nothing less than the book of the world: within it everything is possible, in both a positive as well as a negative sense. And reading it means: to have new experiences...

Rights sold to:

English world rights (FSG), Spanish world rights (Alianza), Catalan rights (Alianza), Chinese simplex rights (Horizon), Chinese complex rights (Ecus), Russia (Eksmo), Portuguese rights (Relogio d'Agua), Arabic world rights (Kalima), France (Gallimard), Italy (Guanda), Sweden (Bonniers), Finland (Lurra), Estonia (Eesti Raamat), Serbia (Laguna), Turkey (Ayrinti), Greece (Gutenberg)

The Innocent, Me and the Unknown Woman by the Side of the Road
Year of Publication: 2015
Peter HandkeYear of Publication: 2015
The time frame, in which the new play by Peter Handke is set, is clearly denoted: it spans over »four seasons«. The place: a country road, a »common country road«? The protagonists: »I«, who is seated by the side of this country road. And who can transform from a dramatic player into an epic narrator.


»I« regards this road as »the last free road in this world, the last...
Side Entrance or Main Entrance?
Year of Publication: 2014
Peter Handke, Thomas OberenderYear of Publication: 2014
Peter Handke and Thomas Oberender recount the impressive history of Handke’s oeuvre in theatre, a life’s work that is incomparable »in regards to formal beauty and brilliant reflection«, as the jury declares in its explanatory statement for bestowing the International Ibsen Award 2014 upon Handke. Oberender asks as one with profound expertise in matters of the stage and as a sensitive...
Essay on the Mushroom Hunter
Year of Publication: 2013
Peter HandkeYear of Publication: 2013
In 2012, Peter Handke resumed his series of Versuche with his essay Versuch über den Stillen Ort. Just one year later, he brings it to a close, definitively, he claims,...
Rights sold to:

USA (FSG), Chinese simplex rights (Horizon), Brazilian Portuguese rights (Estaçao Liberdade), Arabic world rights (Sefsafa), France (Gallimard), Italy (Guanda), Denmark (Batzer), Sweden (Faethon), Finland (Lurra), Poland (Eperons Ostrogi), Serbia (Laguna), Slovenia (Mohorjeva založba/Hermagoras), Greece (Hestia)

The Correspondence
Year of Publication: 2012
Peter Handke, Siegfried UnseldYear of Publication: 2012
»I am happy to announce that after reading your manuscript closely, we have decided to pub-lish your work at Suhrkamp Verlag.« This letter in August 1965 was the start of a correspon-dence consisting of nearly 600 letters in which Peter Handke finally congratulated the pub-lisher on his 75th birthday.


In their letters that stretched a period of over 35 years, Peter Handke and Siegfried...
Essay on the Quite Place
Year of Publication: 2012
Peter HandkeYear of Publication: 2012
In his Versuch über den Stillen Ort, Handke describes the uniqueness of tranquil places. Over the course of his life on several different continents, he has come to regard such...
Rights sold to:

USA (FSG), Spanish world rights (Alianza), Chinese simplex rights (Horizon), Brazilian Portuguese rights (Estaçao Liberdade), Portuguese rights (Relogio d'Agua), Arabic world rights (Sefsafa), France (Gallimard), Italy (Guanda), Denmark (Batzer), Sweden (Faethon), Finland (Lurra), Poland (Eperons Ostrogi), Serbia (Laguna), Greece (Hestia)

The Beautiful Days of Aranjuez
Year of Publication: 2012
Peter HandkeYear of Publication: 2012
Characters: a nameless woman, a nameless man: a simple couple. They meet in order to talk about love, first loves, and what a man and a woman feel when they are with each other. They talk about how...
Rights sold to:

Spanish world rights (Casus Belli), France (Bruit du Temps), Italy (Quodlibet), Norway (Samlaget), Japan (Ronsosha), Serbia (Laguna), Slovenia (Hermagoras/Mohorjeva založba), Greece (Vakxikon)

The Great Fall
Year of Publication: 2011
Peter HandkeYear of Publication: 2011
This is the story of a single day in the life of an actor, a flâneur, who is walking through a big city on a warm summer’s day, from the morning until the dead of night, from the...
Rights sold to:

English world rights (Seagull), Spanish world rights (Alianza), Catalan rights (Rayo Verde), Chinese simplex rights (Horizon), Brazilian Portuguese rights (Estação Liberdade), Portuguese rights (Relogio d'Agua), Arabic world rights (Kanaan), France (Gallimard), Denmark (Rod & Co.), Norway (Paperback edition: Pelikanen), Finland (Lurra), Poland (Eperons-Ostrogi), Czech Republic (Rubato), Bulgaria (Paradox), Serbia (Laguna; audiobook rights: Voxa), Greece (Hestia), Macedonia (Ars Lamina), Georgia (Intelekti)

Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Italy (Garzanti)

Storm Still
Year of Publication: 2010
Peter HandkeYear of Publication: 2010
A panorama that reaches beyond all literary genres while simultaneously transforming them, here prose and drama, the theatrical and the poetical, the historical and the personal are...
Rights sold to:

English world rights (Seagull), Spanish world rights (Casus Belli), Chinese simplex rights (Horizon), Arabic world rights (Kalima), France (Bruit du Temps), Italy (Quodlibet), Netherlands (Van Oorschot), Slovenia (Wieser), Serbia (Laguna)

Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Norway (Samlaget)

Till Day You Do Part Or A Question of Light
Year of Publication: 2009
Peter HandkeYear of Publication: 2009

»Described as an answer to or at least an echo of Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape?, Till Day You Do Part Or A Question of Light is a monologue delivered by the ›she‹ in...

Rights sold to:

English world rights (Seagull), Spanish world rights (Casus Belli), Italy (Quodlibet), Bengali rights (Parampara)

Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Bulgaria (Black Flamingo)

The Cuckoos of Velika Hoca
Year of Publication: 2009
Peter HandkeYear of Publication: 2009
Peter Handke sets out for Velika Hoca, a Serbian enclave in southern Kosovo, on 6 May 2008: »Something was calling me to interview every single person in Serbian Kosovo extensively and in a...
Rights sold to:

France (Différence), Sweden (Karneval), Serbia (Prometej)

The Moravian Night
Year of Publication: 2008
Peter HandkeYear of Publication: 2008
Place: the Balkans, the Morava, a tributary of the Danube, a riverboat.
Time: one night, from late evening to blue-streaked dawn.
Dramatis ...
Rights sold to:

English world rights (FSG), Spanish world rights (Pocketbook edition: Alianza), Chinese simplex rights (Horizon), Brazilian Portuguese rights (Estação Liberdade), Portuguese rights (Relogio d'Agua), Arabic world rights (Aser-Elkotob), France (Gallimard), Netherlands (Wereldbibliotheek), Serbia (Laguna; audiobook rights: Voxa), Turkey (Sia Kitap), Greece (Koukkida), Georgia (Intelekti)

Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Italy (Garzanti), Finland (Lurra)

The Tablas de Daimiel
Year of Publication: 2006
Peter HandkeYear of Publication: 2006

His relationship with Serbia and Slobodan Miloševic not only brought Handke a lot of criticism, they also led to a lot of undifferentiated defamation. In Paris, one of his plays was removed from...

Rights sold to:

Spanish world rights (Tresmolins), Sweden (Karneval), Serbia (Prometej)

Voyage by Dugout or The Play of the Film of the War
Year of Publication: 1999
Peter HandkeYear of Publication: 1999

Two directors meet in the foyer of the Hotel Acapulco in a small provincial town in the heart of the Balkan in order to cast the actors for a planned film on the war that took place in the area a...

Rights sold to:

Chinese simplex rights (Horizon), Italy (Quodlibet)

Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Spanish world rights (Hiru), France (La Différence), Serbia (Paideia), Greece (Exandas)

On a Dark Night I Left My Silent House
Year of Publication: 1997
Peter HandkeYear of Publication: 1997
A short, powerful new novel by one of the greatest writers in the German language


On a Dark Night I Left My Silent House is Peter Handke's evocative, moving, often...
Rights sold to:

English world rights (FSG), Spanish world rights (Pocketbook edition: Alianza), Chinese complex rights (Ecus), Brazilian Portuguese rights (Estação Liberdade), Arabic world rights (Al Arabi), France (Gallimard), Italy (Ugo Guanda), Korea (Munhakdongne), Vietnam (Domino Books), Poland (Eperons-Ostrogi), Slovakia (Slovensky Spisovatel), Lithuania (Alma Littera), Turkey (SIA Kitap), Albania (Aleph)

Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Portuguese rights (Noticias), Netherlands (de Prom), Sweden (Bonniers), Czech Republic (Prostor), Romania (Paralela 45) 

Summer Postscript to a Winter Journey
Year of Publication: 1996
Peter HandkeYear of Publication: 1996
Feeling that his previous trip to Serbia and the resulting report needed to be supplemented, Peter Handke set out again in the late spring of 1996. Taking no notes while on the road, he wrote his...
Rights sold to:

Spanish world rights (Pocketbook edition: Alianza), Chinese simplex rights (Horizon), Italy (Guanda), Sweden (Karneval), Norway (Pelikanen), Korea (Jongmunhwasa), Japan (Hosei UP),  Serbia (Prometej)

Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: France (Gallimard)

My Year In No Man's Bay
Year of Publication: 1994
Peter HandkeYear of Publication: 1994
In his most substaintial novel to date, Handke tells the story of an Austrian writer – a man much like Handke himself – who undergoes a »metamorphosis« from self-assured artist into passive »observer...
Rights sold to:

English world rights (FSG), Spanish world rights (Pocketbook edition: Alianza), Chinese simplex rights (Horizon), Brazilian Portuguese rights (Estação Liberdade), France (Gallimard), Italy (Garzanti), Netherlands (de Prom), Denmark (Batzer), Sweden (Bonniers), Norway (Gyldendal Norsk), Finland (Lurra), Slovenia (Beletrina), Turkey (Alfa)

Ode to Permanence
Year of Publication: 1986
Peter HandkeYear of Publication: 1986

Not an essay, not a scene, not a story – an ode to permanence, as though it were a living being, something physical, as though one could talk to it. The ode as an offering, a courtship, as...

Rights sold to:

Spanish world rights (Trade edition: Alfaguara), Catalan rights (Eumo), Chinese simplex rights (Horizon), Portuguese rights (Assirio & Alvim), France (Gallimard), Italy (Einaudi), Netherlands (Koppernik), Greece (Vakxikon)

Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Serbia (Interpress), Slovenia (Drava)

Repetition
Year of Publication: 1986
Peter HandkeYear of Publication: 1986

Peter Handke’s epic work, in which the muses are called upon not in the beginning but at the end, is both story and exploration of the story, its genesis and importance at the same...

Rights sold to:

USA & Canada (FSG), UK & Commonwealth (Penguin UK), Spanish world rights (Pocketbook edition: Alianza), Chinese simplex rights (Horizon), France (Gallimard), Italy (Guanda), Finland (Otava), Korea (Jongmunhwasa), Japan (Hosei UP), Vietnam (FORMApubli), Serbia (Prometej), Turkey (Jaguar)

Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Brazilian Portuguese rights (Rocco), Portuguese rights (Relogio d'Agua), Netherlands (Arbeiderspers), Sweden (Bonniers), Hungary (Magvetö), Slovenia (Wieser)

Walk About the Village
Year of Publication: 1981
Peter HandkeYear of Publication: 1981

A conflict develops between siblings Gregor, Hans and Sophie about their parents‘ hose. As the eldest son, Gregor has inherited the house and the piece of land after the...

Rights sold to:

UK & Commonwealth (Methuen), Spanish world rights (Pocketbook edition: Alianza), Chinese simplex rights (Horizon), Russia (Eksmo), France (Gallimard), Italy (Quodlibet), Serbia (Laguna)

Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: USA & Canada (Ariadne Press), Italy (Garzanti), Netherlands (Arbeiderspers), Bulgaria (Narodna Kultura)

The Long Way Around
Year of Publication: 1979
Peter HandkeYear of Publication: 1979

For many years, Valentin Sorger was far away from everything that could be subsumised under the terms »home« or »family«. In his zest for being, conscious of his strength, he had given up...

Rights sold to:

USA & Canada (FSG), UK & Commonwealth (Methuen), Spanish world rights (Trade edition: Cuenco de Plata; Pocketbook edition: Alianza), Chinese simplex rights (Horizon),  Russia (Eksmo), Arabic world rights (Al Arabi), France (Gallimard), Netherlands (Koppernik), Sweden (Bonniers), Norway (Gyldendal Norsk), Serbia (Laguna), Albania (Aleph), Armenia (Antares)

Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Italy (Garzanti), Bulgaria (Narodna Kultura)

Short Letter, Long Farewell
Year of Publication: 1972
Peter HandkeYear of Publication: 1972

In the story Short Letter, Long Farewell a young Austrian travels across the USA, fleeing while at the same time seeking his wife Judith. He meets Claire, an old flame; participates in...

Rights sold to:

USA & Canada (FSG), UK & Commonwealth (Methuen), Spanish world rights (Pocketbook edition: Alianza); Latin America (Trade edition: Edhasa), Chinese simplex rights (Horizon), Russia (AST), Brazilian Portuguese rights (Estação Liberdade), Portuguese rights (Relogio d’Agua), Arabic world rights (Al-Kamel), France (Gallimard), Sweden (Bonniers), Norway (Gyldendal Norsk), Iceland (Ugla), Korea (Munhakdongne), Japan (Hosei UP), Poland (Eperons-Ostrogi), Slovakia (Tatran), Romania (ART), Lithuania (Alma Littera), Serbia (Laguna), Turkey (SIA Kitap), Greece (Agra), Macedonia (Ars Lamina), Albania (Aleph Klub), Georgia (Intelekti), Armenia (Antares)

Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Italy (Feltrinelli), Netherlands (Arbeiderspers), Denmark (Gyldendal), Czech Republic (Odeon), Hungary (Europa), Bulgaria (Narodna Kultura), Slovenia (Drava)

The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick
Year of Publication: 1971
Peter HandkeYear of Publication: 1971

The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick is a true modern classic that ›portrays the […] breakdown of a murderer in ways that recall Camus's The Stranger‹ (The New York...

Rights sold to:

USA & Canada (FSG), UK & Commonwealth (Penguin UK), Spanish world rights (Trade edition: Alfaguara; Pocketbook edition: Alianza), Catalan rights (Edicions 62), Basque rights (Elkar), Chinese simplex rights (Horizon), Chinese complex rights (Ecus), Russia (AST), Brazilian Portuguese rights (Estação Liberdade), Portuguese rights (Relogio d'Agua), Arabic world rights (Al Kamel), France (Gallimard), Italy (Ugo Guanda), Netherlands (Koppernik), Denmark (Batzer), Sweden (Bonniers), Norway (Gyldendal Norsk), Iceland (Ugla), Korea (Minumsa), Japan (Sanshusha), Poland (Officyna), Romania (ART), Estonia (Tänapäev), Croatia (Fraktura), Serbia (Laguna), Turkey (Ayrinti), Greece (Gutenberg), Georgia (Intelekti), Armenia (Antares)

Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Czech Republic (Rubato), Hungary (Helikon), Bulgaria (Black Flamingo), Israel (Hakibbutz Hameuchad)


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»German literature is not conceivable without Peter Handke.« Die Zeit