Thomas Bernhard

Amras

U1 for Amras
Suhrkamp | Insel
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Fiction
Thomas Bernhard
Amras / Amras
»A unique work of fiction from »one of the century’s most gifted writers« New York Newsday
»The essence of illness is as dark as the essence of life.« This quote from Novalis serves as a kind of epitaph for this story, written by Thomas Bernhard in 1964. It describes the final phase in the process of the disintegration of a family, the cause and effect of a gradual demise, which is related to the landscape in both mysterious and concrete ways. The tragedy befalls the two last surviving members of the family, a pair of brothers. The brothers’ relationship with one another, always a...
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»The essence of illness is as dark as the essence of life.« This quote from Novalis serves as a kind of epitaph for this story, written by Thomas Bernhard in 1964. It describes the final phase in the process of the disintegration of a family, the cause and effect of a gradual demise, which is related to the landscape in both mysterious and concrete ways. The tragedy befalls the two last surviving members of the family, a pair of brothers. The brothers’ relationship with one another, always a mixture of affection and rejection and growing increasingly strained through illness, provides a tense setting in which life and death, darkness and pain interact, connect, and reflect one another.
1965, 99 pages
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Fiction

Persons

Thomas Bernhard

Author

Thomas Bernhard was born in Heerlen, the Netherlands, in 1931 and died in Gmunden, Austria, in 1989. He is one of the most important Austrian writers and was awarded the Büchner Prize (1970) and the Grimme Prize (1972), among many other accolades. Suhrkamp published Thomas Bernhard's collected works in 22 volumes. 
 

Thomas Bernhard was born in Heerlen, the Netherlands, in 1931 and died in Gmunden, Austria, in 1989. He is one of the most important Austrian...

© Andrej Reiser

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Latest first
The Public Bernhard
Year of Publication: 2014
Thomas BernhardYear of Publication: 2014

The Public Bernhard

This edition presents the first comprehensive collection of all texts that Thomas Bernhard wrote for publication in the media between 1950 and 1989 – from his court reports from Salzburg in the fifties to the tirades against God and the rest of the world published in the sixties and seventies, to the interviews about his play Heldenplatz conducted shortly before his death.


On the Trail of the Truth
Year of Publication: 2010
Year of Publication: 2010

On the Trail of the Truth

Thomas Bernhard and the public sphere: scarcely a single utterance that didn’t provoke a scandal. This volume presents a selection of Bernhard’s most important pieces of journalism, letters...
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Spanish world rights (Alianza), Brazilian Portuguese rights (Todavia), France (Gallimard), Italy (Adelphi), Czech Republic (Prostor), Turkey (Yapi Kredi)

Goethe Dies
Year of Publication: 2010
Year of Publication: 2010

Goethe Dies

Thomas Bernhard did not live to see these stories published in book-form: he was too preoccupied with his monumental novel Extinction and the play Heldenplatz and the ensuing...
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English world rights (Seagull), Spanish world rights (Alianza), France (Gallimard), Italy (Adelphi), Netherlands (Ijzer), Sweden (Tranan), Norway (Gyldendal Norsk), Serbia (Lom), Turkey (Yapi Kredi), Greece (Kelefthos)

My Prizes
Year of Publication: 2009
Thomas BernhardYear of Publication: 2009

My Prizes

This hitherto unpublished comedic work shows Bernhard at the very top of his art: invective, flabbergasted, swearing and ridiculing. Thomas Bernhard quarrels with the world in general, the...
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English world rights (Knopf), Spanish world rights (Alianza), Chinese simplex rights (Horizon), Brazilian Portuguese (Companhia das Letras), Portugal (Bertrand), France (Gallimard), Italy (Adelphi), Netherlands (Atlas), Denmark (Sisyfos), Sweden (Tranan), Norway (Bokvennen), Finland (Teos), Japan (Misuzu Shobo), Poland (Czytelnik), Czech Republic (Prostor), Hungary (Kalligram), Bulgaria (Atlantis), Serbia (LOM), Slovenia (Studentska Zalozba), Turkey (Yapi Kredi), Greece (Hestia)

Domestic Rights Sales: German Audiobook (Roof Music)
 

The Correspondence
Year of Publication: 2009
Year of Publication: 2009

The Correspondence

»If anyone has been hoping for just one last undiscovered drama by Thomas Bernhard, here it is. Its title is Correspondence, its birth spanning from 1961 to Bernhard's death in...
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France (Macula)

Previously published in the respective language/territory; rights available again: Spanish world rights (Complices)

Domestic Rights Sales: German Audiobook (Der Hörverlag)

A Meeting
Year of Publication: 2006
Thomas Bernhard, Krista FleischmannYear of Publication: 2006

A Meeting

Thomas Bernhard rarely agreed to interviews in front of a camera. He did, however, appreciate the television journalist Krista Fleischmann as a sensitive interlocutor, with whom he produced two...

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Sweden (Svenska Thomas Bernhardsällskapet), Serbia (Red Box)

Extinction
Year of Publication: 1986
Thomas BernhardYear of Publication: 1986

Extinction

Extinction is the title of an account that Franz-Josef Murau wrote during the last year of his life in Rome and that Thomas Bernhard made public. These notes were absolutely essential to...
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USA (Knopf), UK (Faber & Faber), Spanish world rights (Alfaguara), Catalan (El Gall), Brazilian Portuguese rights (Companhia das Letras), Portuguese rights (Sistema Solar), France (Gallimard), Italy (Adelphi), Netherlands (Ijzer), Sweden (Tranan), Norway (Gyldendal Norsk), Korea (Bitsogul), Japan (Misuzu Shobo), Vietnam (Tao Dan), Poland (Od Do), Czech Republic (Prostor), Hungary (Kalligram), Bulgaria (Atlantis), Estonia (Varrak), Croatia (Meandar), Serbia (LOM), Turkey (Yapi Kredi), Greece (Antipodes), Albania/Kosovo (OM), Georgia (Sulakauri)

Previously published in the respective language/territory; rights available again: Denmark (Husets), Romania (ART), Slovenia (Maribor), Israel (Schocken)

Old Masters
Year of Publication: 1985
Thomas BernhardYear of Publication: 1985

Old Masters

Old Masters is Thomas Bernhard's devilishly funny story about the friendship between two old men.


For over thirty years Reger, a music critic, has sat on the same bench in...

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USA (Chicago UP), UK (Penguin), Spanish world rights (Alianza), Catalan rights (Cómplices), Chinese simplex rights (Horizon), Russia (Medium), Brazilian Portuguese rights (Companhia das Letras), Portuguese rights (Sistema Solar), France (Gallimard), Italy (Adelphi), Netherlands (De Arbeiderspers), Denmark (Basilisk), Sweden (Tranan), Norway (Gyldendal Norsk), Finland (Teos), Korea (Hyon Am Sa), Japan (Hakusuisha), Vietnam (FORMApubli), Poland (Czytelnik), Czech Republic (Prostor), Slovakia (Kalligram) Hungary (Palatinus), Bulgaria (Critique & Humanism), Rumania (Paralela 45), Estonia (Varrak), Lithuania (Pasvires Pasaulis), Croatia (Disput), Serbia (LOM), Slovenia (Beletrina), Turkey (Yapi Kredi), Greece (Antipodes), Macedonia (Blesok), Albania (Aleph), Ukraine (Folio), Georgia (Sulakauri), Hindi (Radhakrishna), Israel (Babel)

Woodcutters
Year of Publication: 1984
Thomas BernhardYear of Publication: 1984

Woodcutters

Fiercely observed, often hilarious, and »reminiscent of Ibsen and Strindberg« (The New York Times Book Review), this exquisitely controversial novel was initially banned in its author’s...
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Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Hungary (Ferenczy Könyvkiado), Slovenia (Cankarjeva), Macedonia (Blesok)

The Loser
Year of Publication: 1983
Year of Publication: 1983

The Loser

Thomas Bernhard was one of the most original writers of the twentieth century. His formal innovation ranks with Beckett and Kafka, his outrageously cantankerous voice recalls Dostoevsky, but his gift...
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USA (Knopf), UK (Faber & Faber), Spanish world rights (Alfaguara), Basque rights (Alberdania), Catalan rights (El Gall), Brazilian Portuguese rights (Companhia das Letras), Portuguese rights (Relogio d’Agua), Arabic world rights (Al-Kamel), France (Gallimard), Italy (Adelphi), Denmark (Basilisk), Sweden (Tranan), Norway (Gyldendal Norsk), Finland (Teos), Korea (Munhakdongne), Japan (Misuzu Shobo), Vietnam (Tao Dan), Poland (Czytelnik), Czech Republic (Prostor), Slovakia (Kalligram), Romania (Curtea Veche), Estonia (Loomingu Raamatukogu), Serbia (LOM), Slovenia (Hermagoras), Turkey (Yapi Kredi), Greece (Exandas), Macedonia (Blesok), Albanian rights / Kosovo (Pa), Georgia (Sulakauri), Azerbaijan (Alatoran)

Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Hungary (Europa), Bulgaria (Atlantis), Lithuania (Alma Littera), Croatia (Meandar), Israel (Babel)

Wittgenstein’s Nephew
Year of Publication: 1982
Year of Publication: 1982

Wittgenstein’s Nephew

With this work on the history of a friendship, published in 1982, Bernhard offers an autobiography, describing his childhood and youth in five volumes as well as his life between the years 1967 and...
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USA (Knopf), UK (Faber & Faber), Spanish world rights (Anagrama), Portuguese rights (Sistema Solar), Chinese simplex rights (Horizon), Arabic world rights (Mamdouh Adwan), France (Gallimard), Italy (Adelphi), Sweden (Tranan), Norway (Gyldendal Norsk), Finland (Teos), Korea (Purun), Japan (Misuzu Shobo), Vietnam (Hop), Poland (Czytelnik), Czech Republic (Prostor), Turkey (Metis), Greece (Plithos Editions), Albania (Aleph), Azerbaijan (Alatoran), Israel (Am Oved)

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Concrete
Year of Publication: 1982
Thomas BernhardYear of Publication: 1982

Concrete

»Instead of the book he is meant to write, Rudolph, a Viennese musicologist, produces this dark and grotesquely funny account of small woes writ large, of profound horrors detailed and rehearsed to...
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Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Finland (Lurra), Iceland (Bjartur), Poland (Atut), Czech Republic (Prostor), Hungary (Ferenczy), Serbia (Alexandria Press)

The Cheap-Eaters
Year of Publication: 1980
Year of Publication: 1980

The Cheap-Eaters

For years, the four cheap-eaters have been eating at a certain Viennese public kitchen, from Monday to Friday, always the cheapest meals. They become the focus of Koller’s scientific attention...

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Yes
Year of Publication: 1978
Year of Publication: 1978

Yes

»Yes«, answers the Persian woman, the protagonist of Thomas Bernhard’s novel published in 1978, to the narrator’s question of whether she is going to kill herself one day – and laughs.

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USA (Chicago UP), Spanish world rights (Anagrama), Catalan rights (El Gall), Chinese simplex rights (Horizon), Portugal (Sistema Solar), France (Gallimard), Italy (Ugo Guanda), Netherlands (Vleugels), Sweden (Tranan), Finland (Lurra), Japan (Kawade Shobo), Poland (Czytelnik), Turkey (Yapi Kredi), Greece (Antipodes), Israel (Ruth Books)

Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Norway (Bokvennen), Czech Republic (Prostor), Romania (Paralela 45)

Correction
Year of Publication: 1975
Year of Publication: 1975

Correction

»A body,« according to Correction, first published in German in 1975, »needs at least three points of support, not in a straight line, to fix its position, so Roithamer had written.« The...
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Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Hungary (Ferenczy Könyvkiado)

Walking
Year of Publication: 1971
Year of Publication: 1971

Walking

»A powerful, compact novella, Walking provides a perfect introduction to the absurd, dark, and uncommonly comic world of Bernhard, showing a preoccupation with themes —...

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Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Denmark (Basilisk), Norway (Spartacus), Hungary (Europa)

The Lime Works
Year of Publication: 1970
Thomas BernhardYear of Publication: 1970

The Lime Works

For five years, Konrad has imprisoned himself and his crippled wife in an abandoned lime works where he’s conducted odd auditory experiments and prepared to write his masterwork, The Sense of...
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Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Japan (Hayakawa), Czech Republic (Prostor), Hungary (Cartafilus)

Gargoyles
Year of Publication: 1967
Year of Publication: 1967

Gargoyles

The playwright and novelist Thomas Bernhard was one of the most widely translated and admired writers of his generation, winner of the three most coveted literary prizes in Germany....
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English world rights (Knopf), Spanish world rights (Alianza), Brazilian Portuguese rights (Todavia), France (Gallimard), Italy (Adelphi), Netherlands (Ijzer), Denmark (Sisyfos), Sweden (Tranan), Finland (Teos), Poland (Czytelnik), Turkey (Yapi Kredi), Greece (Antipodes), Azerbaijan (Alatoran)

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Frost
Year of Publication: 1963
Year of Publication: 1963

Frost

A young medical student accepts an assignment to monitor the painter Strauch who has withdrawn to the mountain village of Weng. He dutifully records Strauch’s monologues and visions in his notes...
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Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Russia (Symposium), Netherlands (Atlas), Hungary (Cartafilus), Romania (ART), Estonia (Eesti Raamat)