“What would you do if you found yourself in a situation like that of the woman in The Wall, where you would have to start again completely from scratch? That is a thrilling question, because we are not remotely prepared for anything of the kind. Our relationship with the natural world has changed too much for that. The woman in the book is a survivor, and an incredible strength comes from that. At the same time, it is precisely her gentle dealings with nature – the earth and the living creatures around her – that make the book so beautiful. Caring for other life gives her existence meaning in a hopeless world. It is a story about the relationship between humankind and nature, about empathy and caring for others. I grew up in the north of Norway myself, where dependence on nature and the bond with it are far stronger than here in the Netherlands. Sometimes I am afraid of losing my relationship with nature altogether. The Wall challenges us to stop placing human beings at the centre of the world and to see them as only one part of something larger.”

Marlen Haushofer (1920-1970) was an Austrian writer who in recent years has come back into the spotlight thanks to her penetrating portraits of women trying to free themselves from the chains of a patriarchal society. In De mansarde and her masterpiece The Wall she shows their resilience and their ability to escape the roles imposed on them by society through the power of the imagination. Together with Ingeborg Bachmann and Elfriede Jelinek, Marlen Haushofer ranks among the very best that Austrian literature has to offer.