Brilliant…extra stylish.—The Times (UK)
The greatest novelist of the netherworlds, of darkness stretching on beyond death, Alexander Lernet-Holenia (1897–1976) was born into the aristocracy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His many poems, plays, and novels are among the greatest works of modern German literature, and Count Luna is his masterpiece.
Translated by Richard and Clara Winston
With a contribution by Patti Smith
A pupil of Rilke, admired by Borges, Lernet-Holenia has a literary reputation as a sort of continental necromancer, a conductor of the underworldly and oneiric, uprooting tangled lineages and raising the closeted skeletons of guilty nations.—Trevor Quirk, Bookforum
Fog-of-war tales are always abundant, but this one conjures a unique spell. An unsettling tale of war trauma, cleanly and uniquely told.—Kirkus Reviews
Brilliant, extra stylish, excellently written and fearsomely gripping.—The London Times
Brilliant…extra stylish.—The Times (UK)
Austrian writer Lernet-Holenia (Mona Lisa, 1897–1976) addresses guilt over WWII in this masterly novel, originally published in 1955….Lernet-Holenia’s dark humor propels the narrative, and Jessiersky’s obsession is expertly handled, leading to a wholly unexpected conclusion. Driven by intense psychological descriptions, this tale of inaction against injustice has aged quite well.—Publishers Weekly (starred)
Dauntless panache, fast-moving, cleverly convoluted, terrific.—Eileen Battersby, Irish Times on Lernet-Holenia’s I Was Jack Mortimer
In Count Luna, an industrialist inadvertently responsible for sending a man to a concentration camp feels certain that the fellow survived the war and is mounting a shadowy campaign of revenge. Like Kafka, whom he otherwise does not resemble, Lernet-Holenia weaves his most intimate hopes and dreams into the texture of what happens next with exquisitely imagined detail.—The Chicago Tribune
