Prosperos Lost Books (part 2)
Discover the lost literary treasures of Prospero's Library in part 2: unsettling Fiction and Drama from Boris Vian's *Heartsnatcher*, Hermann Ungar's *The Maimed*, and Mikhail Bulgakov's *Heart of a Dog*—must-reads for lovers of surreal, dark, and thought-provoking classics.
Book
Heartsnatcher
by Boris Vian
Boris Vian s early death robbed French literature of a novelist who was coherent while still modern. Heartsnatcher is an esoteric, surrealistic comedy about guilt, set in a deceptively familiar, almost ordinary locale. New Statesman
Book
The Maimed
by Hermann Ungar
Called by Thomas Mann a "sexual hell" as well as "pure artistry," The Maimed is set in Prague and relates the story of a highly neurotic, socially inept bank clerk who is eventually forced to have sexual relations with his widowed landlady. At the same time he must witness the steady physical and mental deterioration of his lifelong friend who is suffering from an unnamed disease. Part psychological farce, Ungar tells a dark, ironic tale of chaos overtaking one's meticulously ordered life. Having died young, Ungar wrote only two novels, in addition to a handful of plays and short stories; this is the first time his work has appeared in English.
