The Beast

First edition in English. 16mo. [17pp]. Staple-bound wraps. 1/2,000 copies printed.

Translated from the German by Karen Leeder. A story in the volume From the Life of a Bestselling Author, which was subsequently published by Harvill Press in 2001. The stories were originally collected in 1998 as Aus dem Leben eines Erfolgsschriftstellers, by Sanssouci Verlag, München.

"It grew under my very eyes. One minute it was nestling on my shoulder, light as a feather, nibbling at the hairs on my neck, the next it flopped down like a sack by my knees, and, before I knew it, I was being faced down by a vast and hulking lump that bore no resemblance to the creature I had been given." A writer is forced to care full-time for a 'beast,' grown from the small furry animal his publisher gifted him, an escapee – perhaps – from Kafka's unrealised bestiary. Recipient of the 1996 Prix Médicis Étranger for his 1993 novel Himmelfarb. "A humorist worthy to be ranked with Saki." –Times Literary Supplement