{"product_id":"9780374601447","title":"The Second Sword: A Tale from the Merry Month of May, and My Day in the Other Land: A Tale of Demons","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e Two novellas by Peter Handke—his first new works since he won the 2019 Nobel Prize in Literature.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Second Sword \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eMy Day in the Other Land \u003c\/i\u003eare two new novellas by the 2019 Nobel laureate Peter Handke. The first picks up the story where Handke’s last work of fiction, \u003ci\u003eThe Fruit Thief \u003c\/i\u003e(described in \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times \u003c\/i\u003eas “an experience of unadulterated \u003ci\u003eliterature\u003c\/i\u003e”), left off. Here a man has returned to his home in the suburbs of Paris, only to soon set out again. Why? We learn, over the course of a story redolent of Handke’s harrowing \u003ci\u003eA Sorrow Beyond Dreams\u003c\/i\u003e, that he is seeking to avenge his mother, who has been unjustly denounced in the pages of a newspaper. \u003ci\u003eThe Second Sword\u003c\/i\u003e is a suspenseful work of self-examination: Will the narrator’s journey end in him throwing down the gauntlet?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eMy Day in the Other Land\u003c\/i\u003e is Handke’s most recently published work—and the first to be written after he was awarded the Nobel Prize. Evoking imagery from the Bible and classical mythology, it portrays a man who has been possessed by demons, causing him to rage endlessly against the inhabitants of his rural village. Aided by his sister, he embarks on a journey to a lake on whose opposite shore lies the “other land.” What ensues is an exorcism of sorts—and one of Handke’s most evocative and original endings. Together, \u003ci\u003eThe Second Sword \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eMy Day in the Other Land \u003c\/i\u003eare essential new entries in a body of work like no other.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Peter Handke","offers":[{"title":"Farrar Straus \u0026amp; Giroux |  Hardback | With dust jacket |  2024-02-06","offer_id":44652676514047,"sku":"9780374601447","price":36.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0329\/9075\/7001\/files\/BNCImageAPI_f0b8e5ba-db37-48c3-a8c8-2ba24cd7f32d.jpg?v=1704310044","url":"https:\/\/riverbookshop.com\/products\/9780374601447","provider":"River Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}