Killing Stella
Published on 8. January 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
96 pages
978-1-5299-5352-7 (ISBN)
Description
Claustrophobic and shattering, this is the story of one ordinary woman unable to save a teenager in her care. It is the story of Stella...
Stella is a friend's nineteen-year-old daughter who has come to live with Anna and her family. Unloved and neglected, Stella's presence disturbs the already tense and tumultuous household. She lodges uncomfortably in their lives, whilst Anna struggles to bring warmth and welcome to the home. Her son continues to be gloomy and her daughter oblivious. Meanwhile Richard, Anna's adulterous husband, pretends not to notice Stella at all...
Marlen Haushofer, author of The Wall, is the undisputed mistress of sustained dread and this gripping short novel deserves to be rediscovered.
TRANSLATED BY SHAUN WHITESIDE
'This potent 1958 novella from Austrian writer Haushofer takes the form of a mother's agitated confession... This one hits hard' Publisher's Weekly
'Chillingly unillusioned... A fable about the habitual moral inertia of educated people' London Review of Books
'Haushofer is a rather terrifying writer... Killing Stella limns a world of guilty secrets and repressions' New Yorker
Stella is a friend's nineteen-year-old daughter who has come to live with Anna and her family. Unloved and neglected, Stella's presence disturbs the already tense and tumultuous household. She lodges uncomfortably in their lives, whilst Anna struggles to bring warmth and welcome to the home. Her son continues to be gloomy and her daughter oblivious. Meanwhile Richard, Anna's adulterous husband, pretends not to notice Stella at all...
Marlen Haushofer, author of The Wall, is the undisputed mistress of sustained dread and this gripping short novel deserves to be rediscovered.
TRANSLATED BY SHAUN WHITESIDE
'This potent 1958 novella from Austrian writer Haushofer takes the form of a mother's agitated confession... This one hits hard' Publisher's Weekly
'Chillingly unillusioned... A fable about the habitual moral inertia of educated people' London Review of Books
'Haushofer is a rather terrifying writer... Killing Stella limns a world of guilty secrets and repressions' New Yorker
Reviews / Votes
A book that gets more, not less, mysterious as it goes. I am glad that such novels exist; they are the literary equivalent of a sudden plunge into icy waters. They shock, they clarify * New York Times * Killing Stella has much in common with the claustrophobic-yet-idyllic milieu of the HBO White Lotus series or Patricia Smith's Ripley novels * npr.org * A slim domestic horror story that serves as a perfect entry to Haushofer's work * Vulture * Haushofer brilliantly transforms an inevitable fatal ending into an electrifying beginning... Stella remains timelessly potent, its haunting horror more relevant than ever * Booklist *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Vintage Publishing
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 193 mm
Width: 125 mm
Thickness: 9 mm
Weight
76 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5299-5352-7 (9781529953527)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Persons
Marlen Haushofer (Author)
Marie Helene Haushofer was born in Frauenstein, Austria in 1920. Following the Second World War, she worked in her husband's dentistry practice. She began publishing short stories in magazines from 1946. She enjoyed success with her novella The Fifth Year, which was published in 1952 but her most enduring work was The Wall, first published in 1963 and now considered a classic of dystopian fiction. She died in 1970.
Shaun Whiteside (Translator)
Shaun Whiteside is an award-winning translator from French, German, Italian and Dutch. His most recent translations from German include Aftermath by Harald Jaehner, To Die in Spring by Ralf Rothmann, Swansong 1945 by Walter Kempowski, Berlin Finale by Heinz Rein and The Broken House by Horst Krueger.
Marie Helene Haushofer was born in Frauenstein, Austria in 1920. Following the Second World War, she worked in her husband's dentistry practice. She began publishing short stories in magazines from 1946. She enjoyed success with her novella The Fifth Year, which was published in 1952 but her most enduring work was The Wall, first published in 1963 and now considered a classic of dystopian fiction. She died in 1970.
Shaun Whiteside (Translator)
Shaun Whiteside is an award-winning translator from French, German, Italian and Dutch. His most recent translations from German include Aftermath by Harald Jaehner, To Die in Spring by Ralf Rothmann, Swansong 1945 by Walter Kempowski, Berlin Finale by Heinz Rein and The Broken House by Horst Krueger.