Frost is the first novel by Thomas Bernhard

Thomas Bernhard

Thomas Bernhard was an Austrian novelist, playwright and poet. Bernhard, whose body of work has been called "the most significant literary achievement since World War II," is widely considered to be one of the most important German-speaking authors of the postwar era.- Life :Thomas Bernhard was...

, originally published in German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

 in 1963. An English translation by Michael Hofmann

Michael Hofmann

Michael Hofmann is a German-born poet who writes in English and a translator of texts from German.-Biography:...

 was published in 2006.

Plot summary

Strauch, mad painter

Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

, isolates himself from the world by retreating to the hamlet of Weng near Schwarzach im Pongau

Schwarzach im Pongau

Schwarzach im Pongau is a market town in the St. Johann im Pongau district in the state of Salzburg in Austria.-Notable people:* Helmut Zobl ,* Kurt Leitner , retired footballer* Eva Linsinger , journalist...

. His surgeon

Surgeon

In medicine, a surgeon is a specialist in surgery. Surgery is a broad category of invasive medical treatment that involves the cutting of a body, whether human or animal, for a specific reason such as the removal of diseased tissue or to repair a tear or breakage...

brother has Strauch watched by his young medical assistant, who narrates the book. The inn where Strauch resides is managed by a woman with a husband in prison and an endless sequence of lovers. The story includes a significant amount of violence and murder.

Narrative style

The character Strauch has a tendency to speak in long, ranting monologues, which characterises all of Bernhard’s subsequent work. Another element in Bernhard’s style is repetition: he often repeats phrases with minor variations. As the narrative progresses, the voice of the young narrator increasingly disappears into the voice of Strauch.