Illusions (Faber Editions)

Four office workers, one unforgettable weekend: this rediscovered German modernist classic exposes the hidden fears and dreams locked inside every employee in shimmering language.

They blur, they dissipate into a multitude of fleeting images, shadows, and reflections . . .

Post-war West Germany. In an open-plan office on the thirteen floor of a vast corporation, thousands of workers are fragmented in their transparent glass cubicles.

Four employees sit at their desks: a grey-suited executive secretary; a short-sighted translator; a once-glamorous typist; and a sleepy-eyed trainee. Their weekend begins at Saturday lunchtime, and we join these four colleagues until they reconvene on Monday morning, experiencing a panoramic vista of their pasts and presents, joys and sorrows, realities and illusions.

Lost for decades since it was first published in Germany in 1959, and translated into English by Rob Madole for the first time, this shimmering debut novel by a pioneering female writer exposes the mirages that define how we live: in the workplace, in the home, and in our own mind's eye.

A new translation by Rob Madole.