Provocative, romantic, and relentlessly exploratory, Peter Handke is one of the greatest writers of our time. *A Long Journey Home*, originally published in the late 1970s, is a landmark in Handke's literary achievements and has had a profound influence on other writers, including the renowned German author Sebald.
This novel is an interrogation and a journey of self-discovery, undertaken by the protagonist as he returns home, attempting to escape the distractions of the modern world and the morbid awareness of its inherent deficiencies. It is a journey fraught with fear, yet ultimately one of self-correction, culminating in an unexpected note of joy.
The book opens in America. Handke writes about Valentin Sorger, a troubled geologist who has gone to Alaska to lose himself in his work, but is suddenly overcome by homesickness. On his way to Europe, he travels in a state of perilous disorientation across the great world.
