The Loft

An Austrian housewife sits in her loft intent on a strange project: to draw a bird that knows it is not alone. The loft is a retreat where she can work on her drawing. 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 happened 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