A Trip to Klagenfurt

A Trip to Klagenfurt is the story of a pilgrimage. Only days after the burial of Ingeborg Bachmann, writer Uwe Johnson journeyed to her gravesite in the Austrian city of Klagenfurt, where Bachmann had grown up. Johnson meticulously observes the landscape of the city by layering its cultural, physical, and historical background with Bachmann'' own letters, interviews, and largely autobiographical writings. The result is a personal consideration of a life and a friendship, which Johnson uses to illuminate his entire generation--one haunted by a history buried in the hope that it will be forgotten. Eccentric, brooding, and innovative, A Trip to Klagenfurt invites the reader to consider the vast forces behind a single extraordinary life, and to mourn that life's passing.