Thomas Bernhard

In Italy, an Austrian teacher devotes his energy to criticizing his family's noble heritage--its snobbery, hypocrisy, Catholicism, Nazism--but when on his parents' death he returns to take over the country estate, he does not practice what he preached. By the author of The Loser.

Frost follows an unnamed young Austrian who accepts an unusual assignment. Rather than continue with his medical studies, he travels to a bleak mining town in the back of beyond, in order to clinically observe the aged painter, Strauch, who happens to be the brother of this young man's surgical mentor. The catch is this: Strauch must not know the young man's true occupation or the reason for his arrival. Posing as a promising law student with a love...