{"product_id":"woodcutters","title":"Thomas Bernhard: Woodcutters [2011] paperback","description":"Thomas  Bernhard, one of the most distinct, celebrated, and perverse of 20th  century writers, took his own life in 1989. Perhaps the greatest  Austrian writer of the 20th century, Bernhard's vision in novels like Woodcutters  was relentlessly bleak and comically nihilistic. His prose is  torrential and his style unmistakable. Bernhard is the missing link  between Kafka, Beckett,  Michel Houellebecq and Lars von Trier; without  Bernhard, the literature of alienation and self-contempt would be bereft  of its great practitioner. \u003cbr\u003eWoodcutters  is widely recognised as his masterpiece. Over the course of a few  hours, following a performance of Ibsen's The Wild Duck, we are in the  company of the Auersbergers, and our narrator, who never once leaves the  relative comfort of his 'wing-backed chair' where he sips at a glass of  champagne. As they anticipate the arrival of the star actor, and the  commencement of dinner, the narrator of Woodcutters dismantles  the hollow pretentiousness at the heart of the Austrian bourgeoisie.  The effect is devastating; the horror only redeemed by the humour.","brand":"Bernhard, Thomas","offers":[{"title":"Very Good","offer_id":49498513441107,"sku":"XV80571276097","price":7.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0616\/4001\/6057\/files\/bernhard-thomas-woodcutters-xv80571276097-59183838953811.jpg?v=1727504953","url":"https:\/\/chaptersbookstore.com\/products\/woodcutters","provider":"Chapters Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}