The Loft

A woman is unnerved when a sinister package arrives in the post—containing her old diary entries. Strange and gripping, this is the unmistakable work of Marlen Haushofer, mistress of sustained dread and author of the cult classic, The Wall.

An Austrian housewife sits in her loft intent on her drawings of birds and insects.

The loft is a retreat where she can work undisturbed. It is also a retreat from her dull and dissatisfied husband, a man who sighs unhappily even when she sneezes. Their grown-up children are living independent lives, and the house is very quiet. Her dreams are filled with domestic drudgery.

Then one day, a package arrives containing extracts from the narrator's diary, written twenty years before. Back then she had been sent away to a remote cottage in a bid to 'cure' her from unexplained sudden deafness. More mysterious packages containing old diary entries arrive. Who is sending them? And what did happen all those years ago in the forest?

'A thrilling novel... What gives this book its tremendous power? First the voice is charming, with a skittish beauty throughout... But there is also disarming honesty, and a lack of vanity, which appeals as only truth can' —John Self, Guardian

Translated by Amanda Prantera