You Should Have Left by Daniel Kehlmann

You Should Have Left

Daniel Kehlmann

The scriptwriter character of the narrator invites you to see his life as filmscript, and the disjointed, provisional, illogical nature of both his writing notes and his haunted experiences will open chasms of uncertainty in your mind. A haunting, experimental read which will send shocks down your spine.

Extract
I opened the notebook. I read the messages, the fragments of messages, the awful sentences that I had copied down, while I fidgeted with something that had been lying on the table. It was the triangle ruler from the village store. From upstairs I heard Susanna singing a lullaby. Because the inactivity was unbearable, I turned the page and drew a straight line. I rotated the ruler and carefully drew another, at a right angle. I positioned the ruler so that it bisected the right angle and drew a third straight line.
The result looked peculiar.
Parallels
  • The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami
  • Amaryllis Night and Day by Russell Hoban
  • The Castle by Franz Kafka