The Wall
Published: July 27, 2022
Wilderness survival stories offer narratives of process. How do the protagonists make it off the boat, plane, or spaceship alive? How do they find shelter? Food? Companionship? How do they get home – or create it anew? The answers hinge on ingenuity, daring, and resourcefulness.
Some of the best of these books – "Island of the Blue Dolphins,” “My Side of the Mountain” – get shelved in the children’s section, a disservice to adult readers who may have missed them. This summer’s crop of novels includes a survival story for grown-ups that’s as pulse-thumping as it is thought-provoking.
And it’s 60 years old.
“The Wall,” written in 1962 by Austrian author Marlen Haushofer, is her only work translated into English. The novel has earned high praise over the decades, and continues to feel remarkably well-tuned to the concerns of the day.
The story opens with the narrator, a middle-aged widow whose name we never learn, announcing the purpose of the forthcoming account. “I’m quite alone, and I must try to survive the long, dark winter months,” she writes matter-of-factly. “I’ve taken on this task to keep me from staring into the gloom.”