The Frog in the Throat

In a small town in Switzerland, Franzex-clergyman, ex-husband, current counselor of locals at loose ends is being haunted by his recently deceased father, Klement. In life, Franz was caught cheating on his wife and defrocked, after which Klement never spoke to him again. In death, Klement visits his son in the form of a frog in the throat, choking him, yes, but also giving voice to an old dairy farmer devoted to the old ways, forever railing against his son and the whole modern mess he represents. The same can be said of this novel, in which these two voices clash, harmonize, and ultimately offer up all the mutual recognition and incomprehension that is family life. A miniature tragicomic masterpiece, Markus Werners second novel is as bursting with life as a Dickens novel: not only Franzs high-strung shenanigans and the fathers settled life among the cattle, but the lives of his sister and brother and the land all around. As in all of Werners work, the world looks grim (I sit around, I drink, I brood, I pat myself down for flaws and find many and each evening I say: Starting tomorrowIm going to get a grip on myself) but never less than comica view captured marvelously in Michael Hofmanns vivid translation.