'A book so astonishing that I immediately reread it, fearful it might disappear' Patti Smith

The war is over but Alexander Jessiersky, a wealthy Austrian aristocrat and industrialist, is haunted by guilt over the neighbour he inadvertently sent to a concentration camp, Count Luna. What's more, he is convinced that Luna survived - and is out to get his revenge. So begins a wild, weird cat-and-mouse chase that takes him and his shadowy nemesis through windswept valleys, eerie houses and, eventually, Rome's catacombs, as an increasingly paranoid Jessiersky asks himself: will Luna stop at nothing to exact his bloody vengeance? Crazed, raging and darkly comic, Count Luna is a reckoning with postwar guilt, and an irresistible tale of the uncanny.

'Like Kafka ... Lernet-Holenia weaves his most intimate hopes and dreams ... with exquisitely imagined detail' Chicago Tribune

About the Author
Alexander Lernet-Holenia (Author)
Alexander Lernet-Holenia was born in Vienna in 1897. He served in the Austro-Hungarian army in the First World War and became a protege of Rainer Maria Rilke. During his life he wrote poetry, novels, plays and was a successful screenwriter. His books were included on the first Nazi blacklist and subsequently burned, but after the end of the Second World War, he again became a vital figure in Austrian cultural life.

Jane B. Greene (Translator)
Jane B. Greene was a translator best known for her translations of Count Luna by Alexander Lernet-Holenia and Letters of Rainer Maria Rilke, 1892-1910.



Reviews
A book so astonishing that I immediately re-read it, fearful it might disappear -- Patti Smith
Daunting panache, fast-moving, cleverly convoluted, terrific * Irish Times *
In Count Luna, an industrialist inadvertently responsible for sending a man to a concentration camp feels certain that the fellow survived the war and is mounting a shadowy campaign of revenge. Like Kafka [...] Lernet-Holenia weaves his most intimate hopes and dreams into the texture of what happens next with exquisitely imagined detail * Chicago Tribune *



Book Information
ISBN 9780241649541
Author Alexander Lernet-Holenia
Format Paperback
Page Count 160
Imprint Penguin Classics
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Weight(grams) 123g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 8mm