Book description
The last work of fiction by one of the twentieth century’s greatest artists, Extinction is widely considered Thomas Bernhard’s magnum opus.
Franz-Josef Murau—the intellectual black sheep of a powerful Austrian land-owning family—lives in Rome in self-imposed exile, surrounded by a coterie of artistic and intellectual friends. On returning from his…
Why read it?
1 author picked Extinction as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
I discovered Bernhard—miraculously—in a provincial train station in southern Italy, where the bar had a selection of books on sale.
This was when Bernhard translations into English were hard to find, so my early experience of the writer, in my opinion one of the most extraordinary of his generation, was in Italian. His final novel, Extinction, is set in Rome and it’s a classic of Bernhardian nihilism, scratching at the itch of the absurdity that is life in the face of death.
Bernhard’s Rome is the yin of intellectual freedom to the suffocating and hypocritical yang of Austria. In…
From Charles' list on set in 20th century Rome.
If you love Extinction...
Mural
Famed Australian literary critic Peter Craven has included Mural in his best books for 2024. He called it "dark and brilliant." Rod McLary in the Queensland Reviewers Collective says it's "breath-taking," a "tour de force of literary fiction." On her blog This Reading Life, Brona was "fascinated" by this confession…
Want books like Extinction?
Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like Extinction.
Share your top 3 reads of 2025!
And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.
1,340
readers submitted
so far, will you?
