Man in the Holocene

Max Frisch (1911-1991) was born in Zurich, Switzerland before the First World War and was a soldier in the Second. In the interwar years, he traveled throughout Eastern and Central Europe as a journalist. After serving as a gunner on the Austrian and Italian borders, he followed in his father's footsteps and became an architect. These experiences helped forge the moral consciousness and the concern for human freedom that mark his writing. The author of I'm Not Stiller, Homo Faber, and The Man in the Holocene, and the winner of the Jerusalem Prize, the Heinrich Heine Prize, and Neustadt International Prize for Literature among other honors, Frisch was one of Europe s most important postwar writers. Geoffrey Skelton has translated Max Frisch s "Man in the Holocene, Sketchbook: 1966-1971" and "Bluebeard", and Peter Weiss s "Morat/Sade". In addition, Skelton has edited a number of books on classical music.

"This is my favorite book of all time. An oldie but a goodie. A man is stuck alone in his home during a storm in the Swiss Alps. What does he think about—and how does he pass the time? It's a short read, a little more than 100 pages—and every word leaves you on the edge of your seat. This is the one book I'd take with me on a desert island. An incredible look into history, human memory—and a meditation on life itself." —Newsweek"Poetry of the mind rather than the senses—sparse and austere, with every detail chosen for its resonances . . . A small book but a major achievement." —The Washington Post "Haunting, sad, yet lovely . . . An important, disturbing and powerful novel that deserves attention." —Chicago Sun-Times"Frisch is a great, and even an inspiring, writer, because he gives us the unique sense that the act of analysis is a passionate act, impelled by our fear of the world's dissolution and our knowledge of our own fragility." —Newsday