With a mixture of hope and melancholy, young Victor leaves the home of his foster mother to begin his working life. His journey takes him to a remote island, where he visits his only relative – an uncle he has never met. The old man, a lifelong bachelor, lives in a barricaded mansion, enveloped by an atmosphere of decay.The two men are immediately at odds. With his uncle hardly speaking to him, Victor finds himself a virtual prisoner on this mysterious island. As the frost between the men slowly begins to thaw, Victor realises he must confront his own past to regain control of his life.
O autorze
Adalbert Stifter (1805-68) was an Austrian writer, painter and tutor to the Viennese aristocracy. Informally part of the so-called Biedermeier movement in German-language literature, he has been celebrated by writers including Rilke, Hofmannsthal, Mann, Hesse, Auden and Sebald, and is particularly famed for his vivid descriptions of natural landscapes in his literary work.