Peter Handke's "The Moravian Night"

I just finished reading Peter Handke's "Erzählung" (story, narrative) and am filled with a wide range of emotions and thoughts. Peacefulness is the primary emotion, and a hightened awareness of the things around me -- my dog, the crackle of the buck's passage through scruboak outside my window, the rainsquall swooping down on the house from Loafer Mountain, the taste of the portobellos we just grilled.

The narrator of the story tells about a long journey through the Balkans, Spain, Germany, and Austria, a journey that brings him to places from Handke's life and into contact with characters from Handke's earlier works.

The story begins and ends on the Morava River just outside the town of Porodin in what is now Serbia. The narrator describes lambs grilled on spits -- and thus Thomas Deichmann's photo taken in Porodin, of Peter, Zarko, Zlatko's father who has grilled the lamb for us, and a younger me.

More about the ideas of the story another time.

What a pleasure it is to read.