Gathering Evidence

New
Paperback
2003
$11.98

Born in 1931, the illegitimate child of an abandoned mother, Thomas Bernhard was brought up by an eccentric grandmother and adored grandfather. Tormented as a young student in a right-wing, catholic Austria, Bernhard ran away from home aged fifteen. At eighteen he contracted pneumonia. Placed in a hospital ward for the old and terminally ill, he observed with unflinching acuity protracted suffering and death. From the age of 21, everything he wrote was shaped by the urgency of a dying man's testament - his witness, the quintessence of his life and knowledge - and where this account of his life ends, his art begins.

Synopsis

Born in 1931, the illegitimate child of an abandoned mother, Thomas Bernhard was brought up by an eccentric grandmother and adored grandfather. Tormented as a young student in a right-wing, catholic Austria, Bernhard ran away from home aged fifteen. At eighteen he contracted pneumonia. Placed in a hospital ward for the old and terminally ill, he observed with unflinching acuity protracted suffering and death. From the age of 21, everything he wrote was shaped by the urgency of a dying man's testament - his witness, the quintessence of his life and knowledge - and where this account of his life ends, his art begins.

$11.98

Save:$1.47 (11%)

Quantity

4 in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 352
Edition: New e.
Publisher: Vintage
Published: 06 Mar 2003
ISBN 10: 0099442531
ISBN 13: 9780099442530
Book Overview: Written with a dark pain and drama that recalls the novels of Dickens, Gathering Evidence is a powerful and compelling memoir of youth by one of the twentieth century's most gifted writers.

Media Reviews

A writer of great originality and fascination * New York Review of Books *
Breathless, relentlessly compulsive... A remarkable literary contribution * New York Times Book Review *

Author Bio

Thomas Bernhard was born in Holland in 1931 but grew up in Austria. His interest in music and theatre led him to study at the Akademie Mozarteum in Salzburg. He wrote a quantity of poetry, several novels, short stories and plays and three volumes of autobiography. He died in 1989.