Wholesale Beyond Sleep: A Novel

A deadpan comedy often subtly calling up the works of Heller or Vonnegut at their best, Willem Frederik Hermans's Beyond Sleep is a unique and illuminating examination of how hard it is to be a true pioneer in the modern world. "The language is dry; the socks are wet; the compass is lost. A masterpiece." —Roddy Doyle The young Dutch geologist Alfred Issendorf is determined to win fame for making a great discovery. To this end he joins a small geological expedition, which travels to the far north of Norway, where he hopes to prove a series of craters were caused by meteorites, but ultimately realizes he's more likely to drown in a fjord or be eaten by parasites. Unable to procure crucial aerial photographs, and beset by mosquitoes and insomnia in his freezing leaky tent, Alfred becomes increasingly desperate and paranoid.