--- product_id: 14046470 title: "The Loser: A Novel (Vintage International)" price: "₨509" currency: SCR in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.sc/products/14046470-the-loser-a-novel-vintage-international store_origin: SC region: Seychelles --- # The Loser: A Novel (Vintage International) **Price:** ₨509 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** The Loser: A Novel (Vintage International) - **How much does it cost?** ₨509 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.sc](https://www.desertcart.sc/products/14046470-the-loser-a-novel-vintage-international) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description Thomas Bernhard was one of the most original writers of the twentieth century. His formal innovation ranks with Beckett and Kafka, his outrageously cantankerous voice recalls Dostoevsky, but his gift for lacerating, lyrical, provocative prose is incomparably his own. One of Bernhard's most acclaimed novels, The Loser centers on a fictional relationship between piano virtuoso Glenn Gould and two of his fellow students who feel compelled to renounce their musical ambitions in the face of Gould's incomparable genius. One commits suicide, while the other--the obsessive, witty, and self-mocking narrator--has retreated into obscurity. Written as a monologue in one remarkable unbroken paragraph, The Loser is a brilliant meditation on success, failure, genius, and fame. Review: Short, brilliant and kinda devastating - It’s bleak, but Bernhard is also weirdly funny in that pitch-black Austrian way. The repetition becomes hypnotic. At some point you stop reading it like a normal novel and start riding it. Review: Damned if you do. Damned if you don't. - Thomas writes in an almost hysterically misanthropic style. Though he writes German sentences to the extreme - sentences can be a paragraph long, if you can find a paragraph - even so I found the translation well parsed and easy to comprehend. Of course the question is, is he actually misanthropic or empathetically frustrated and ironical. The reader will have to make up his/her own mind. Even die hard fans seem able to read only so much of Bernard at a time. He is heavy going with the diatribe against humanity or its individual examples. - or human, self centered folly. I can only say he is easier and more enjoyable to read than Elias Canetti. Or Dostoevsky. The book has absolutely nothing to do with Glen Gould. That this is clear very early on helps the reader understand that this fiction is not about common reality. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #93,492 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #50 in German Literature (Books) #295 in Metaphysical & Visionary Fiction (Books) #1,341 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction | | Customer Reviews | 4.3 out of 5 stars 356 Reviews | ## Images ![The Loser: A Novel (Vintage International) - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71oOHRJ2hrL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Short, brilliant and kinda devastating *by M***M on May 24, 2026* It’s bleak, but Bernhard is also weirdly funny in that pitch-black Austrian way. The repetition becomes hypnotic. At some point you stop reading it like a normal novel and start riding it. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Damned if you do. Damned if you don't. *by D***M on April 16, 2015* Thomas writes in an almost hysterically misanthropic style. Though he writes German sentences to the extreme - sentences can be a paragraph long, if you can find a paragraph - even so I found the translation well parsed and easy to comprehend. Of course the question is, is he actually misanthropic or empathetically frustrated and ironical. The reader will have to make up his/her own mind. Even die hard fans seem able to read only so much of Bernard at a time. He is heavy going with the diatribe against humanity or its individual examples. - or human, self centered folly. I can only say he is easier and more enjoyable to read than Elias Canetti. Or Dostoevsky. The book has absolutely nothing to do with Glen Gould. That this is clear very early on helps the reader understand that this fiction is not about common reality. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "When we meet the very best, we have to give up *by G***S on October 25, 2017* Thomas Bernhard writes, "When we meet the very best, we have to give up, I thought." This is a book about the agony, envy, and resignation of not being a genius. Do you require such a book? I needed it, though I did not know that. It's also a book about the misery of inheriting a vast sum of money, /not/ a book I needed, particularly, though I was so hooked I went right along with it. Of all the books I've read that consist of a single, unbroken, paragraph -- Garcia Marquez, Beckett, Saramago -- this was my far the most effortless, the most compulsively readable. My bitterness, I discovered, was downright ecstatic to have some company. It warms like a bonfire, piling on obsessions, repetitions, and brilliance, and some of perhaps the best sentences I've ever read: "A person can be ruined for life in Chur, even if he only spends one night there." This must be a good place to start reading Thomas Bernhard, since I'd never read any of his novels before this one (I'd read only stories of "The Voice Imitator") and now I am determined to read everything. It is an oddly addictive voice; a week later I am still cross I don't have more Bernhard to read. In the midst of investigating misery, ways of surviving it are found and lost, then found and lost again. Art, for one, though it is found to be a most uncertain raft. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.sc/products/14046470-the-loser-a-novel-vintage-international](https://www.desertcart.sc/products/14046470-the-loser-a-novel-vintage-international) --- *Product available on Desertcart Seychelles* *Store origin: SC* *Last updated: 2026-08-31*