The Honditsch Cross

By Ingeborg Bachmann
Translated by Tess Lewis 

"Equal to the best of Virginia Woolf and Samuel Beckett."―The New York Times Book Review

"Bachmann’s vision is so original that the effect is like having a new letter of the alphabet."―The Guardian

A powerful historical work about war and its victims, never before in English, from the celebrated author of Malina

Written when Ingeborg Bachmann was only eighteen, The Honditsch Cross, her second-longest completed work of prose, is a historical novella set during the final days of the Napoleonic occupation of Austria in 1813.

A young theology student, returning from Vienna to his family home in Carinthia, finds the invading troops stationed there, led by a despotic officer, who has been exploiting and terrorizing his family and friends. He is immediately thrown into the center of the conflict, torn between defending his homeland, the pull of physical desire, and the pursuit of his theological studies

In this gripping work, Bachmann begins to explore themes that will preoccupy her for the rest of her writing career: complex notions of nationality and patriotism, the roles and rights of women in patriarchal societies, the meaningless destruction of war and its aftermath, and the bitter moments of disillusionment that lead to intellectual maturity.

Paperback 
80 pages
New Directions, 2025
5.5 x 0.3 x 8.5 inches
ISBN 9780811238564     
Fiction