As part of their 90th anniversary celebrations, Penguin released 90 short books priced at £5.99. Many of them contain extracts from longer books which are, or have been, published as Penguin Classics and make excellent introductions to a new author, but some are entire (short) novels and therefore well worth obtaining if you do not already own them. Below you will find six suggestions which fall into this category.
After Midnight by Irmgard Keun
After Midnight (translated by Anthea Bell) is one of three novels Irmgard Keun wrote about the experience of living in Germany during the 1930s. Published in 1937, it portrays a country in which National Socialism has infiltrated everyday life and is used to settle personal as well as political arguments, as the 19-year-old narrator, Sanna, discovers when her aunt reports her to the Gestapo to prevent a relationship developing with her cousin and she has to leave Cologne for Frankfurt. There she stays with her brother, Algin, a writer who (like Keun) feels threatened by the new regime. The novel is set during one night, presumably echoing the dark period that the country has entered (“We’re all in a concentration camp, the whole nation is,” as one character memorably puts it). At times absurd, at others unbearably tense, it builds towards a heart-stopping conclusion.
Baron Bagge by Alexander Lernet-Holenia
Baron Bagge by Austrian writer Alexander Lernet-Holenia (translated by Richard and Clara Winston) is set during the First World War, a war Lernet-Holenia fought in. As the novel opens the Baron is warned off a young man’s sister – he has a reputation of allowing women to fall in love with him and then refusing to marry them – and a duel is threatened. Bagge, instead, offers an explanation: he is already married. The story of his marriage begins in 1915 when his commanding officer, Semier, orders his cavalry to charge a bridge held by machine guns. Bagge is knocked unconscious and, when he awakens, is surprised to find the battle won. His unit advances further and he meets and falls in love with Charlotte, the daughter of a friend of his mother’s. When he is ordered to leave the town, he marries Charlotte even though she is convinced he will never return. What makes this novella worth reading is its wonderful twist, which, of course, cannot be revealed here.
The Driver’s Seat by Muriel Spark
The Driver’s Seat may be Muriel Spark’s shortest novel but it is also one of her best. The seventies were Spark’s most experimental period and the novel (like its follow-up Not to Disturb) takes the crime genre as it starting point by revealing that the central character, Lise (its no accident that her name is anagram of ‘lies’) will be found dead the next day. This is a novel in which the victim, rather than the detective, searches for the murderer. There are immediate hints when she chooses her wardrobe to fly to a city in southern Europe (probably Rome) as she chooses a deliberately garish outfit to ensure she is noticed, and is appalled when it is suggested she buy something that won’t stain. Although it can be read as a novel about a young woman in a fragile mental state, it is, like all of Spark’s work, about fate and free will – and, like all of Spark’s work, wonderfully entertaining.
Lady L by Romain Gary
If you are an admirer of Romain Gary you will be pleased to see one of his novels, Lady L, back in print; if not, then there are worse places you might start to get to know this intriguing author (the only man to have won the Prix Goncourt twice – but that’s another story). Lady L is the epitome of the English aristocracy – but she begins her story as a French commoner, in fact a prostitute, her mother’s sixteen-hour shifts as a laundress having put her off the idea of earning a living through hard work. It is through her profession that she meets the anarchist, Armand, she will fall in love with, the only problem being that as much, as she loves him, he loves the cause which he always places before her. How Lady L resolves this situation becomes clear in the novel’s denouement, which – even if you have guessed – makes for an entertaining journey. While this is not Gary’s best novel, it is an excellent introduction to his work.
An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter by Cesar Aira
Argentinian Cesar Aira, author of over eighty short novels, is a writer where knowing where to start can be as bewildering as his work often is. Luckily many agree that An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter, written in the year 2000 and translated by Chris Andrews in 2006, is among his best. Ostensibly a biography of the 19th century German painter Johann Moritz Rugendas, Aira’s intention is neither factual nor even naturalistic as he describes Rugendas’ travels through Latin America, particularly Argentina, where he searches for a wilderness beyond human touch. In the novel’s central scene, he suffers severely but remains devoted to his art. More focused than some of Aira’s work, there is always a sense it might be developed further, but there really is no other writer like him.
Closely Watched Trains by Bohumil Hrabal
Like Aira, Czech Bohumil Hrabal is a writer who has his own unique style and Closely Watched (or Closely Observed) Trains (published in 1965 and translated by Edith Pargeter in 1968) is similarly regarded as being among his best work. The narrator is Miloš Hrma, an apprentice on the railway, who provides an often comical narrative focused in large part on his desire to lose his virginity. The darkness that lies behind Hrabal’s humour, however, is evident from the fact that Hrma has recently returned to work from a three-month absence after a suicide attempt. Set during the final year of the Second World War, it opens with a plane being shot down, and ends with Hrma’s involvement in a plan to attack a German ammunition train. Hrabal is a digressive writer, and the novel is packed with characters and incidents rather than propulsive narrative. Hrabal captures the absurdist nature not only of war but of life.
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