This novelette - a rarely attempted 'monologue exterieur' - is a beautiful and powerful human document based on constants of human existence, love and betrayal. Against the decaying Austro-Hungarian Empire, lost values and ways of life are highlighted and emotional relationships inexorably analysed and assessed. Not to everyone's taste, as the atmosphere is close and claustrophobic, its elegance and power nevertheless succeed in mesmerising the reader.
(Kathie Somerwil Ayrton - bwl 30 June 2005) |
