Jakob von Gunten

Robert Walser · 1878–1956 · Switzerland

Originally Jakob von Gunten (German) · translated by Christopher Middleton

Why it matters

A young man enrolls at a strange school that trains its students to become perfectly, willingly 'nothing.' A small, hypnotic novel of self-erasure that Kafka, Musil, and Benjamin all singled out for its uncanny originality.

At a glance

Strange, hypnotic diary voice whose flatness conceals real unease.