All Days are Night - Softcover

Peter Stamm

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1783780096 ISBN 13: 9781783780099

Publisher: Granta, 2016

Synopsis

Gillian seems to have it all - she is beautiful, successful, and securely married. But one night, after an argument with her husband, their car crashes on a wet road, and everything is lost. When she wakes in the hospital, she is a widow with a ruined face and no way back to the person she thought she was. It is only when she begins to piece together the painful shards of her present existence and revisit a relationship from her past that she is able to glimpse the freedom that might come with her loss. From the master of unadorned storytelling, All Days Are Night is a quietly disquieting exploration of identity, inside and out.

About this title

Review:

'Everything Peter Stamm turns his hand to is highly disturbing, acutely perceptive, and unfathomably gripping, and All Days Are Night is no exception. In sentences that are plain and surgical, in prose that has about it a disquieting stillness, he dissects our fractured lives. A masterpiece of disorientation and control, All Days Are Night may be his best novel yet' -- Rupert Thomson, author of Secrecy

'With a devastating clarity typical of this writer - and of his translator, the justly lauded Michael Hofmann - This is a short, brilliant novel' -- Independent

'The narrative is elegantly bifurcated. If Stamm's characters are distanced from themselves then Stamm,in turn, keeps his distance from them. His involvement is more forensic than empathetic and his style is understated. This is surprisingly effective, throwing the characters interior worlds into stark relief. There is wry humour lurking beneath. All Days Are Night recuperates one of the biggest themes any novelist can tackle with austere, formal brilliance' -- Financial Times

'Brilliantly translated by Michael Hofmann... All Days Are Night is undeniably subtle and, at times, very moving' -- Literary Review

'Stamm's impassive narration has an easy grace and economy, while leaving it up to the reader to figure out what to think about his characters. All Days Are Night is a small gem about starting over when you have nothing left' **** --Metro

'Stamm gives this well-worn set-up real energy with an unsparing account of Gillian's recovery. His prose, in a crystalline translation by Michael Hofmann, is as sharply illuminating as a surgical light. A profound and mysterious book that leaves questions tantalisingly open' --Economist

'From this quietly terrifying premise... Stamm builds a close and intimate tale of coping with a new identity and trying to regain a sense of control over one's destiny. It's both intense and intelligent, a dark read with glimmers of light' -- Lesley Mcdowell, Sunday Herald
'Arresting... Written with striking formal clarity and crystalline simplicity... the voice cuts across what is described, across the sincerity of pain and grief, and the effect is beautiful and profound' --Times Literary Supplement

About the Author:

PETER STAMM was born in 1963, in Scherzingen, Switzerland. He is the author of the novels Agnes, On A Day Like This, Unformed Landscape, Seven Years (Granta) and the collection We're Flying (Granta), as well as numerous short stories and radio plays. He lives in Winterthur. MICHAEL HOFMANN has translated the works of many writers, including Franz Kafka, Joseph Roth, and Hans Fallada. He teaches at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

About this edition

• Publisher: Granta
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1783780096
• ISBN 13: 9781783780099
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 368