The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick

The first of Peter Handke's novels to be published in English, The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick follows the self-destruction of a soccer goalie turned construction worker who wanders aimlessly around a stifling Austrian border town after pursuing and then murdering, almost unthinkingly, a female movie cashier. His aimless wandering is mirrored by his use of direct, sometimes fractured prose that conveys a seamless blend of lyricism and horror.

A true modern classic.

Endorsements

"portrays the breakdown of a murderer in ways that recall Camus's The Stranger" — Richard Locke, The New York Times

"at its best a seamless blend of lyricism and horror seen in the runes of a disintegrating world" — Bill Marx, Boston Sunday Globe