A "challenging and rewarding novel"* from Nobel Prize-winning author Peter Handke.The time is an unspecified modernity, the place possibly Europe. Absence follows four nameless people -- the old man, the woman, the soldier, and the gambler -- as they journey to a desolate wasteland beyond the limits of an unnamed city. "In this smoothly written fable, Handke forcefully summons readers to the recognition that the essence of human life lies in the striving for self-expression even though its perfect realization must always remain elusive."--*Publishers WeeklyA remarkably abstract book even for the very abstract Handke... Slippery but engrossing work, silkily translated. - Kirkus Reviews