A Sorrow Beyond Dreams: A Life Story [Paperback]

The Sunday edition of theK?rntner Volkszeitungcarried the following item under Local News': In the village of A. (G. township), a housewife, aged 51, committed suicide on Friday night by taking an overdose of sleeping pills.'

So opensA Sorrow Beyond Dreams,the eminent Austrian novelist and playwright Peter Handke's reckoning with his mother's lifewhich spanned the rise of the Nazis, World War II, and postwar sufferingand death. Both stark and lyrical, full of love, anger, admiration, and a keen sense of history, this slim book reveals Handke at his most lucid and direct. It is the most moving and accessible work in his distinguished career; it is indispensable (Bill Marx,The Boston Globe).

Moving and beautifully realized . . . Nearly perfect. Richard Locke, The New York Times Book Review

A Sorrow Beyond Dreamsis Handke's masterpiece, a short, concentrated, mysteriously exhaustive portrait of his mother, from whom history and circumstance have removed most traces of an identity. J. S. Marcus , The New York Review of Books

InA Sorrow Beyond Dreams, the author confronts his mother's suicide in a compelling story that is like an explanation of a recurrent dream, a dream so vividly expressed it becomes our dream.' Chicago Sun-Times

Peter Handke was born in Griffen, Austria, in 1942. He is the author of many plays and novels, includingThe Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick(FSG Classics) and, most recently,Don Juan: His Own Version(FSG, 2011).