European Book Club: Night Work, by Thomas Glavinic

Where: The Austrian Cultural Forum, 11 E 52nd Street (between Fifth and Madison avenues), New York, NY

To register for this session, send us an email at austria.nyc@europeanbookclub.org

The Book:

Night Work, by Thomas Glavinic

The routine of daily life is such that one goes to sleep with the security that tomorrow will arrive, just as it did today.

Jonas, a young professional in contemporary Vienna, wakes up one morning to discover that he may be the last living being on earth. The highways are empty. The restaurants are empty. The animals have disappeared. The radio only emits white noise and the internet is down. No one answers his phone calls.

Setting off across Europe in search of his girlfriend or any sign of life, Jonas’s harrowing expedition is a dark reflection of man’s private journey. Night Work is a fast-paced, psychological thriller, exploring the darkness that lies deep within us all. With skilled, efficient prose, Glavinic unsettles our notion of the human condition and the artifice of civilization, peeling back the onion to reveal our greatest fears, that no one is in charge and that something unthinkable and unjust is about to occur. A riveting story about paranoia, madness, and fear, Night Work is a small gem of a book.

The Author:

Thomas Glavinic, born in 1972, has worked as a taxi driver, farmer, and copywriter. His first novel, Carl Haffner’s Love of the Draw, made the Daily Telegraph Book of the Year list. He lives in Vienna.