The Wall

By: Marlen Haushofer

Narrated by: Christa Lewis

A haunting feminist sci-fi masterpiece and international bestseller that is as absorbing as Robinson Crusoe (Doris Lessing)

While vacationing in a hunting lodge in the Austrian mountains, a middle-aged woman awakens one morning to find herself separated from the rest of the world by an invisible wall. With a cat, a dog, and a cow as her sole companions, she learns how to survive and cope with her loneliness.

Allegorical yet deeply personal and absorbing, The Wall is at once a critique of modern civilization, a nuanced and loving portrait of a relationship between a woman and her animals, a thrilling survival story, a Cold War-era dystopian adventure, and a truly singular feminist classic.

©1968, 1990 Ullstein Buchverlage GmbH, Berlin; Shaun Whiteside (P)2023 New Directions Publishing Corp.

Critic reviews

"A haunting feminist sci-fi masterpiece and international bestseller that is as absorbing as Robinson Crusoe." (Doris Lessing)

A masterpiece. I’ll be thinking about this for years.

This is the rare kind of audiobook that makes me want to (1) track down everything else this author has written, and (2) track down everything else this narrator has narrated. There’s a Murakami-like dreaminess to the whole affair that I found hypnotic, and made me very glad I listened to it instead of read it, since I think reading it in print might have encouraged me to skim over some parts. I suspect you need to take in every word to make the ending really hit. Just a fascinating meditation on loneliness and determination. Don’t skip the afterword.

Wow! So good but also gut wrenching!

I enjoyed reading this book. The main character makes the most of her situation and I felt like I was walking in her shoes. I wonder what I would do in this situation. I could only hope to cope so well.

Definitely worth a listen.

This was a calming, contemplative, often somber book. The narration was very well done. While not the most exciting story ever read, it leaves a lot to think about.

The beauty of solitude.

This book was expertly read and addresses the beauty of solitude and freedom from past and future in a place where neither matter. I won't spoil it by revealing the point of it all. However, do listen to the afterward.

Unforgettable

Beautiful, brilliant, haunting novel, beautifully read. Will listen over and over. I found this accidentally after Sigurd Balle (On the Calculation of Volume) mentioned it in an interview.