Man in the Holocene

A stunning tour de force, Man in the Holocene constructs a powerful vision of our place in the world by combining the banality of an aging man's lonely inner life and the objective facts he finds in the books of his isolated home. As a rainstorm rages outside, Max Frisch's protagonist, Geiser, watches the mountain landscape crumble beneath landslides and flooding, and speculates that the town will be wiped out by the collapse of a section of the mountain. Seeking refuge from the storm in town, he makes his way through a difficult and dangerous mountain pass, only to abandon his original plan and return home.

A compelling meditation by one of Frisch's most original characters, Man in the Holocene charts Geiser's desperate attempt to find his place in history and in the confusing and fragile world outside his window.

"A luminous parable. . . . A masterpiece." -New York Times

"Poetry of the mind rather than the senses--sparse and austere, with every detail chosen for its resonances. . . . A small book but a major achievement." -Washington Post

"Haunting, sad yet lovely. . . . An important, disturbing and powerful novel that deserves attention." -Chicago Sun-Times

"Frisch is a great, and even an inspiring, writer, because he gives us the unique sense that the act of analysis is a passionate act, impelled by our fear of the world's dissolution and our knowledge of our own fragility." -Newsday