The Ballad of the Last Guest — an ode on intellectual isolation
Peter Handke draws on Kafka and Camus in his portrayal of a floundering narcissist
Related reading
A Life in Letters by John Updike — a personality revealed vividly
This collection of the late writer’s correspondence is pure gold, shining with insights about literature and life
The Last Movement — a beautiful portrait of Mahler, a genius all at sea
Robert Seethaler’s gem of a novella mixes the dying composer’s reflections with real-life history and imaginative flourishes
Book of Lives by Margaret Atwood — the champion storyteller tells her own tale
Astringent, unsparing and generous by turns, the Canadian writer’s memoir is as compulsively readable as her best fiction
Lázár — a bravura saga of family ghosts, secrets and lies
Nelio Biedermann’s ambitious debut is a fast-paced story of decline and fall across three generations in Austria-Hungary
The twilight of the physical letter
End of deliveries by Denmark’s mail service bodes ill for the epistolary form
The School of Night by Karl Ove Knausgaard — the author’s struggle continues
The Norwegian novelist continues his ‘Morning Star’ series with a deadpan tale of a self-aggrandising artist