The Last Wolf & Herman (winner Of The Nobel Prize In Literature 2025)

By (author) Krasznahorkai Laszlo; Contributions by Szirtes, George; Translated by Batki John; Translated by Szirtes, George
Short description/annotation:
Now in paperback, two masterly novellas by Europe''s preeminent literary genius.
Description:
FROM THE WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE 2025 In The Last Wolf, a philosophy professor is mistakenly hired to write the true tale of the last wolf of Extremadura, a barren stretch of Spain. His miserable experience is narrated in a single, rolling sentence to a patently bored bartender in a dreary Berlin bar. In Herman, a master trapper is asked to clear a forest''s last ''noxious beasts.'' Herman begins with great zeal, although in time he switches sides, deciding to track entirely new game... In Herman II, the same events are related from the perspective of strange visitors to the region, a group of hyper-sexualised aristocrats who interrupt their orgies to pitch in with the manhunt of poor Herman... These intense, perfect novellas, full of Krasznhorkai''s signature sense of foreboding and dark irony, are perfect examples of his craft. Translated by George Szirtes and John Batki
Review quote:
The Last Wolf reveals what a light-footed and lucid writer Krasznahorkai is, how he entertains as well as disturbs. The book is an excellent short introduction to his fiction, much as Metamorphosis is to Kafka ... Krasznahorkai''s method is to examine reality "to the point of madness" and he does so with majestic style and black comedy.
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Unforgettably visceral and beautiful
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Together, The Last Wolf and Herman raise a set of spiritual questions that affirms their author as one of the most important - and eccentric - writers working today.
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Melancholy, fantastical and entirely original ... seductive and comical, too
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Exquisite ... claustrophobic, exhilarating and tinged with fatal comedy
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Wonderful ... perfectly judged
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A visionary writer of extraordinary intensity and vocal range who captures the texture of present day existence in scenes that are terrifying, strange, appallingly comic and often shatteringly beautiful ... magnificent works of deep imagination
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The Last Wolf is a great introduction to the world of László Krasznahorkai. Enter here and keep going.
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[Krasznahorkai has] a magnificently strange and hypnotic way of thinking.
Biographical note:
László Krasznahorkai was born in Gyula, Hungary, in 1954. He has written 14 novels and won multiple awards including the Nobel Prize in Literature for 2025, the National Book Award for Translated Literature in 2019 for Baron Wenckheim''s Homecoming, the 2015 Man Booker International Prize for lifetime achievement and the 2024 Prix Formentor. Several of his most famous novels, including Satantango and The Melancholy of Resistance, were turned into films by the director Béla Tarr. His books have been translated into forty-two languages, and his most recent, Herscht 07769, was published in 2024. He lives in the hills of Pilisszentlászló in Hungary.
Promotional headline:
Now in paperback, two masterly novellas by Europe''s preeminent literary genius