Robert Seethaler

Shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize. Andreas lives his whole life in the Austrian Alps, where he arrives as a young boy taken in by a farming family. He is a man of very few words and so, when he falls in love with Marie, he doesn't ask for her hand in marriage, but instead has some of his friends light her name at dusk across the mountain. When Marie dies in an avalanche, pregnant with their first child, Andreas' heart is broken. He leaves his valley just once more, to fight in WWII - where he is taken prisoner in the Caucasus – and returns to find that modernity has reached his remote haven . . . Like John Williams' Stoner or Denis Johnson's Train Dreams, A Whole Life by Robert Seethaler is a tender book about finding dignity and beauty in solitude. An exquisite novel about a simple life, it has already demonstrated its power to move thousands of readers with a message of solace and truth. It looks at the moments, big and small, that make us what we are.

A Whole Life

Maytal

Only 150 pages but so beautiful. Perfect for a balcony or solo park read.

Bruno Darío

Además de tener una cubierta que ya casi merecería 5 estrellas por sí sola, está maravillosamente escrito, y espero aprender de su estilo porque es al tipo de novela al que aspiro escribir en mis sueños. Pero la historia tampoco ha conseguido agarrarme del todo, así que por ahora se queda en 3 ⭐. Probablemente más cuando lo relea.

'Heart-rending and heart-warming... for all its gentleness, a very powerful novel.' Jim CraceAndreas lives his whole life in the Austrian Alps, where he arrives as a young boy taken in by a farming family. He is a man of very few words and so, when he falls in love with Marie, he doesn't ask for her hand in marriage, but instead has some of his friends light her name at dusk across the mountain. When Marie dies in an avalanche, pregnant with their first child, Andreas' heart is broken. He leaves his valley just once more, to fight in WWII - where he is taken prisoner in the Caucasus - and returns to find that modernity has reached his remote haven...Like John Williams' Stoner or Denis Johnson's Train Dreams, A Whole Life by Robert Seethaler is a tender book about finding dignity and beauty in solitude. An exquisite novel about a simple life, it has already demonstrated its power to move thousands of readers with a message of solace and truth. For fans of The Man Who Planted Trees by Jean Giono, Silk by Alessandro Baricco and Sandor Marai's Embers, Seethaler looks at the moments, big and small, that make us what we are.Translated by Charlotte Collins.

Beth Bartholomew

This book was bought for me by a lovely lady who did not know me, but knew I was having a hard time. She told me this book would help me see things in a different light and that it made a difference to her. I can see why she advised me this book, it is quite simply about a man who has a lot of bad things happen to him in his life, but he keeps on pushing through and makes the best out of his circumstances.

The writing is simple and easy to read, which is a relief because on first glance I thought this might be filled with pretentious ramblings. This simplicity mirrored Andreas’ life and choices, he was very matter of fact in his thinking and moved through life at a casual pace. I liked him in the sense that he was very easy to understand, but I also didn’t like him because I felt like he had no real personality, there was nothing different about him as a character. But perhaps this was the point, is he meant to be someone for the reader the place themselves onto?

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Andreas lives his whole life in the Austrian Alps, where he arrives as a young boy taken in by a farming family. He is a man of very few words and so, when he falls in love with Marie, he doesn't ask for her hand in marriage, but instead has some of his friends light her name at dusk across the mountain. When Marie dies in an avalanche, pregnant with their first child, Andreas' heart is broken. He leaves his valley just once more, to fight in WWII -- where he is taken prisoner in the Caucasus -- and returns to find that modernity has reached his remote haven . . . Like John Williams' Stoner or Denis Johnson's Train Dreams, A Whole Life is a tender book about finding dignity and beauty in solitude. An exquisite novel about a simple life, it has already demonstrated its power to move thousands of readers with a message of solace and truth. It looks at the moments, big and small, that make us what we are.

Gary Homewood

The life story of a stoic orphan in a mountain valley in rural Germany, from the 1930s on. Quietly poetic, carefully detailed and structured, yet powerfully universal.

behringlukas

Kelsey Laird

Daniel Gynn

jami welch

An international bestseller Andreas Egger knows every path and peak of his mountain valley, the source of his sustenance, his livelihood--his home. Set in the mid-twentieth century and told with beauty and tenderness, Robert Seethaler's A Whole Life is a story of man's relationship with an ancient landscape, of the value of solitude, of the arrival of the modern world, and above all, of the moments, great and small, that make us who we are.

A Novel

Chloe king 

Chris G

Fatma 

Claudia Gulbransen-Diaz

Andreas lives his whole life in the Austrian Alps, where he arrives as a young boy taken in by a farming family. He is a man of very few words and so, when he falls in love with Marie, he doesn't ask for her hand in marriage, but instead has some of his friends light her name at dusk across the mountain. When Marie dies in an avalanche, pregnant with their first child, Andreas' heart is broken. He leaves his valley just once more, to fight in WWII - where he is taken prisoner in the Caucasus - and returns to find that modernity has reached his remote haven...

A Whole Life

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