List Price: $14.00

Tags: Literature & Fiction, General,

Book Description:
The Loser is a brilliant fictional account of an imaginaryrelationship among three men—the late piano virtuoso Glenn Gould, theunnamed narrator, and a fictional pianist, Wertheimer—who meet in 1953to study with Vladimir Horowitz. In the face of Gould's incomparablegenius, Wertheimer and the narrator renounce their musical ambition, butin very different ways. While the latter sets out to write a book aboutGould, Wertheimer sinks deep into despair and self-destruction."Like Swift, Bernhard writes like a sacred monster. . . . A remarkableliterary performer: [he] goes to extremes in ways that vivify our senseof human possibilities, however destructive."—Richard Locke, Wall Street Journal"The excellence of Bernhard—and it is a kind virtuosity, ably maintainedin this American translation—is to make his monotonous loathing not onlysting but also, like Gould at the piano, sing."—Paul Griffiths,Times Literary Supplement"[He is] one of the century's most gifted writers."—David Plott,Philadelphia Inquirer"America has been sadly immune to the charm and challenge of Bernhard'swork and the American public has deprived itself of the deep and seriouspleasure of reading one of the great writers of this century. . . . Oneof the great works of world literature. Its arrival on these shores is asignificant literary event."—Thomas McGonigle, New York Newsday