A Whole Life by Robert Seethaler

The towering mountains are eerie and avalanches are a reality. One night Andreas is woken by a sound: “it was no more than an intimation, a soft whisper stealing around the walls . . . Black clouds were racing across the night sky, a pale, shapeless moon flickering between them.”

As the landscape begins to move, Andreas is caught up by the rampaging snow and pushed along as if by a great wave. The subsequent tragedy changes everything for him.

The story is in the telling of it, another truism adroitly illustrated by this novel. The sparse, understated style made me want to read more to find out how Egger deals with the unkind blows he receives. We see that in spite of harsh conditions, Egger lives his life without self-pity; we come to like and admire him and ultimately to reflect on how we deal with adversity in our own lives.