Ranging from one-page fantasies to novella-length studies of everyday existence,
The Walk reveals the irresistible genius of one of the twentieth century's grea
test writers. Under-appreciated even in his own lifetime, Robert Walser has none
theless been recognised by such writers as W.G. Sebald, Susan Sontag, Franz Kafk
a, Herman Hesse and J.M.Coetzee. Like Kafka and Sebald, Walser wrote about the s
olitude and unease of human existence. Honest, wry and idiosyncratic, his storie
s are snapshots of the lives great artists, poor young men, beautiful women and
talking animals alike.Ranging from the realist to the allegorical, the short fic
tion collected in this volume demonstrates Walser's uncanny ability to capture b
oth life's strangeness and its small joys.
