Read this when
The Wall
Woke up and the rest of humanity was behind an invisible wall. She made it through with a dog, a cow and a notebook. 🐕 Lockdown lit, written in 1963.
Who it's for
The unnamed narrator is suddenly sealed off from all other people by an invisible wall, and the novel follows years of her careful, practical survival, which many readers found uncannily close to pandemic lockdowns.
Feelings it meets
What it is
Marlen Haushofer's 1963 novel is narrated by an unnamed woman staying at a hunting lodge in the Austrian mountains who finds herself cut off from the rest of the world by an invisible wall. With a dog, a cow and a cat for company, she learns to live off the land and her supplies, tending a garden and caring for the animals that depend on her.
Where to find it
In print (English translation by Shaun Whiteside, e.g. Cleis Press and later reissues); available from some libraries and as an ebook. Not public domain.
Before you start
Heads up: Violent deaths of a dog and other animals.
Age: Ages 16+
The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself.Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, Chapter 27
