Beyond Sleep

Reviews / Votes

A comedy of worldy disengagement trembling on the edge of tragedy, all the more hilarious for being related in Hermans' best poker-faced manner -- J.M. Coetzee Hermans is one of the most important European authors of the second half of the twentieth century -- Cees Nooteboom In Ina Rilke's lively and graceful translation, Hermans' novel does what so few do: it makes one see and feel life afresh -- Paul Binding * Independent * Fluently translated, and blending droll comedy with existential calamity in ways that repeatedly wrong foot the reader, Beyond Sleep is a disconcerting delight * Daily Mail * No thumbnail description of Beyond Sleep can begin to suggest the richness and complexity of a novel that humbled many a Dutch critic into nail-biting sessions of rereading -- Willem Otterspeer * Wall Street Journal * As bright and black as anything contemporary. It has the energy and ruthlessness of farce and a terrifying deadpan style, and it ends in appalling catastrophe * Bookforum * Successful and entertaining... A master at work, with a fine, light touch. * The Complete Review * A masterpiece of world literature * Die Welt * A Kafka and Celine-inspired novel, which mixes...the black Romanticism of the 19th-century and the cold, laconic thriller art of the 20th-century * Frankfurter Allgemeine * Praise for An Untouched House * _ * Profoundly unsettling and haunt[s] the mind for long afterwards * Sunday Times, Books of the Year * I was struck by the compressed farce and horror in the 1951 Dutch novella An Untouched House by Willem Frederik Hermans, in David Colmer's new translation * Spectator, Books of the Year * A shocking Dutch classic... remarkable... It takes an hour or two to read, but An Untouched House is the kind of book that stays with you for ever * Guardian * Shocking... properly unsettling... It would certainly be good to have a lot more of Hermans's work available here * Sunday Times * I was overwhelmed -- Sam Jordison * Guardian, Choose your Book of 2018 * By any light, this eloquent marvel teases, bewilders and unnerves * Times Literary Supplement * Taut... dark, thrillerish story, ably translated by David Colmer, carries the pungent tang of authenticity * New Statesman * Underrated -- Ian McEwan * TLS * Bleak, hilarious, angry, ruthless and plain. [Hermans is] as alarming as a snake in the breadbin. He's also hugely entertaining * Scotsman * 'A stark, funny and graphic exploration of the folly of war... Bravo Pushkin Press for seeking out yet another international gem * A Life in Books (blog) * Short but powerful novella... I was filled with admiration for its unflinching depiction of what happens when war numbs the human heart and destroys empathy * The Book Jotter (blog) * Disturbing, haunting, and brilliant... an excellent antidote to misty eyed nostalgia for blitz or Dunkirk spirit * Desperate Reader (blog) * Not for the faint-hearted * Lizzy's Literary Life (blog) * An expertly crafted story... A small novel that packs a strong, hard punch * Complete Review * Crackling with uneasy tension... A beautiful new edition of a powerful and timeless slim Dutch masterpiece, written in spare and crisp style that brings to mind Camus * The Lady * The Dutch have hailed him as their greatest novelist, and now, slowly, Europe is getting to know him -- Milan Kundera * Le Monde * A dark wartime vision that evokes Koestler, Orwell, and Vonnegut. * Kirkus * A violent climax without equal in modern literature -- Cees Nooteboom As disturbing and powerful as anything by Joseph Heller or Kurt Vonnegut -- Michel Faber * Guardian * A literary tour de force * Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung * Not only would Dutch literature be considerably less without Hermans; so would European literature * Suddeutsche Zeitung *