Beneath Black Stars by Martin Chalmers

Beneath Black Stars

Martin Chalmers

What can I say? It was an experience dipping into this collection of Austrian contemporary fiction. I began to feel concern for the Austrian psyche, so much angst, so much collective guilt and little or no trace of humour, certainly not English humour! But one of the stories, by Lilian Faschlinger appealed to me enough to go and look for a novel she wrote, Magdalena the Sinner, purportedly a best seller.

Extract
the woman leaves the letter unopened.she wants to forget it.she believes that the letter should not be opened until she has mastered her impatience.until she has left it lying somewhere in the house and comes across it only by accident.the woman leaves the letter lying on the chest of drawers, on the window sill, on the bedside table, on the washing machine.eventually she hides it under the mattress.
Parallels
  • Diaboliad and Other Stories by Mikhail Bulgakov
  • After Nature by W G Sebald