Description: On a Dark Night I Left My Silent House is Peter Handke's evocative, moving, often fantastic novel about one man's conflict with himself and his journey toward resolution. During one night shift, an unnamed, middle-aged pharmacist in Taxham, an isolated suburb of Salzburg, tells his story to a narrator. The pharmacist is known and well respected, but lonely and estranged from his wife. He feels most comfortable wandering about in nature, collecting and eating hallucinogenic mushrooms. One day he receives a blow to the head that leaves him unable to speak, and the narrative is transformed from ironic description into a collection of sensual impressions, observations, and reflections. The pharmacist, who is now called the driver, sets out on a quest, traveling into the Alps with two companions -- a former Olympic skiing champion and a once famous poet -- where he is beaten and later stalked by a woman. He drives through a tunnel and has a premonition of death, then finds himself in a surreal, foreign land. In a final series of bizarre, cathartic events, the driver regains his speech and is taken back to his pharmacy -- back to his former life, but he is forever changed. A powerful, poetic exploration of language, longing, and dislocation in the human experience, On a Dark Night I Left My Silent House reveals Handke at his magical best.

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