An Answer from the Silence

English-language readers are now able, 74 years after its publication in Stuttgart, to read this early novel by the Swiss writer Max Frisch. Withheld by the author from his collected works in the 1970s, An Answer from the Silence has tell-tale signs of youth like sincerity and iconoclasm. In this respect it could be classified as a lesser Hunger. But there is more here, such as subtle and lyrical imagery of the mountains, where the young man of the story goes in a search for meaning.