To the back of beyond

After returning from a pleasant holiday with his wife, Astrid, and their two children, Thomas leaves the house.

He walks down the street, and he keeps on walking. At first Astrid asks herself where he's gone, and then when he's coming back, and finally whether he is even still alive.

In precise and hypnotic prose that cuts as cleanly as a scalpel, To the Back of Beyond is a novel that takes away the safe foundations of a marriage and a lifestyle to ask deeper questions about identity, connection and how free we are to change our lives.

It is a graceful and resonant work from one of Europe's most important writers.