W.: A Novel

Description

The novel W. is a literary prequel to one of modern literature's touchstone texts, the play Woyzeck-the basis of films, operas, and numerous translations and adaptations. Considered the first modern drama, Woyzeck tells the story of a loyal foot soldier who, in a fit of jealous rage, kills the woman he loves. In 1836 this true story inspired Georg Buechner to write the play, unfinished at his death at just 23 years old. W., the astonishing new novel by August Prize-winning author Steve Sem-Sandberg, grippingly recounts the lovers' relationship, the murder case, and the solder's execution, while digging deeper into the world and motivations of the characters. Taking this classic and enduring work as his starting point, in poetic and controlled prose, Sem-Sandberg reveals a ruthless, moving, and unforgettable story of human vulnerability and the abyss that Buechner felt was a part of every person. Larger forces such as the horrors of war and the dehumanizing nature of psychiatry collide with the soldier's own small world, and love devolves into hatred as Woyzeck desperately and humanly struggles to make something of the life given to him.

Steve Sem-Sandberg is a writer, translator, and literary critic. He began writing in 1976 and is best known for his many documentary historical novels, including Theres (1996), Ravensbruck (2003), and De fattiga i Lodz (2009), which won the August Prize. In addition to his writing, he also works as a literary critic at Dagens Nyheter. In 2020 he was elected to the Swedish Academy, the body that chooses the Nobel Prize for Literature.

"Cogent and affecting . . . In Mr. Sem-Sandberg's fine novel, the tragedy is real but much more specific and conditional. It gives us, the readers, just enough of a loophole to evade its reckonings." -- "Wall Street Journal" "A sharp and hypersensitive novel about abandonment and violence. It's a fantastic, spellbinding, and terrifying book." -- "Dagens Nyheter" "It's the collaboration and tension between the reader and Woyzeck, rather than the attempts to find more profound motives, that makes this reading experience so strong." -- "Svenska Dagbladet" "This is fiction of true moral force, brilliantly sustained and achieved." --Hilary Mantel "(on The Emperor of Lies)"