A Tiler's Afternoon
by Lars Gustafsson
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"In his newest novel, A Tiler's Afternoon, Lars Gustafsson invites us to share a day's work with Torsten Bergman, an aging, semi-retired tile-layer. On this particular day, Torsten arrives at an empty suburban villa, partially renovated and left unfinished. A master craftsman, he knows what to do and goes about his business, all the while reminiscing over his past, considering what may be left of his future, daydreaming about the mysterious Sophie K., the absent occupant of the villa's show more upstairs flat. No one checks on the work. With the close of the day comes Torsten's growing unease over hours spent on perhaps futile labor. "But at that moment there was a loud knocking at the door - no, more of a pounding than a knocking. It sounded as if by some strange coincidence the whole world had come to life again and was trying to get in." Like Samuel Beckett, Lars Gustafsson turns the plainest of circumstances into poignant universals. There are yet roads to travel after we say we cannot go on."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved show lessTags
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Member Reviews
Here is a fine, short existential novel about an aging everyman, a sort of solitary "born loser" working to eke out a living as a tile-layer in Uppsala, Sweden in the early 1980s. The book employs wry humor to offset the haunting Beckett-like seriousness at its heart. - Adam
Narrazione filosofica attraverso il tempo ed il senso (od il non-senso?) del vivere. In epigrafe una frase di Sartre: “Ogni vita è uno scacco”.
Fairly disappointed in this book and I am finished with Lars Gustafson. Three books is a good enough gauge to discover if an author is worth my time. Not one of them as good as the cover blurbs suggested.
In cui si apprende dell'esistenza del lavoro nero, dei falsi invalidi e dell'arte di arrangiarsi un po' fregando nella civilissima Svezia
Un libro sulla solitudine rabbiosa di chi non ha più scopo, interessi ed energie per vivere una vita che, evidentemente, non è andata come voleva o sperava
Un libro sulla solitudine rabbiosa di chi non ha più scopo, interessi ed energie per vivere una vita che, evidentemente, non è andata come voleva o sperava
Jul 27, 2020Italian
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International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
179 works; 6 members
Author Information

106+ Works 1,884 Members
Lars Gustafsson was born in Västerås, Sweden on May 17, 1936. He was a poet and novelist. He published his first novel, Vägvila: Ett Mysteriespel På Prosa (Rest on the Way: A Mystery Play in Prose), at the age of 21. His other novels include The Death of a Beekeeper and Dr. Wasser's Recept. His collections of poetry include The Stillness of show more the World before Bach, Elegies and Other Poems, A Time in Xanadu, and Selected Poems. He received numerous literary awards including the Prix International Charles Veillon des Essais in 1983, the Heinrich Steffens Preis in 1986, Una Vita per la Litteratura in 1989, a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship for poetry in 1994, and the Thomas Mann Prize in 2015 for his work and its influence on German culture. He taught philosophy and creative writing at the University of Texas at Austin from 1983 to 2006. He died after a short illness on April 3, 2016 at the age of 79. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- A Tiler's Afternoon
- Original title
- En kakelsättares eftermiddag
- Original publication date
- 1991
- Important places
- Sweden
- Original language*
- Svedese
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
Classifications
- Genres
- Fiction and Literature, General Fiction
- DDC/MDS
- 839.7374 — Literature & rhetoric German & related literatures Other Germanic literatures Swedish literature Swedish fiction 1900-1999 1945-1999
- LCC
- PT9876.17 .U8 .K2913 — Language and Literature German, Dutch and Scandinavian literatures Swedish literature Individual authors or works 1961-2000
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 136
- Popularity
- 240,363
- Reviews
- 4
- Rating
- (3.43)
- Languages
- 9 — Danish, Dutch, English, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 14




























































