Author
Walter Abish
Birth Date
December 24, 1931
(90 Years)
Death Date
May 28, 2022
Associated Country
United States
Walter Abish was an Austrian-American novelist and experimental writer known for his innovative, linguistically playful fiction that often explores language, structure, and meaning itself. Born in Austria, he fled with his family during the rise of Nazism and later settled in the United States, where he became an American citizen and built his literary career.
Abish gained recognition as a leading figure in postmodern literature with works such as Alphabetical Africa (1974), a novel famously structured so that each chapter introduces new letters of the alphabet in sequence. His other works, including How German Is It (1980), examine history, memory, and the legacy of war through fragmented and experimental narrative techniques. The latter won the American Book Awards.
His writing is known for its formal experimentation, intellectual rigor, and focus on how language shapes reality. Abish’s work challenged conventional storytelling and made him an important figure in contemporary experimental and postmodern literature.
Abish gained recognition as a leading figure in postmodern literature with works such as Alphabetical Africa (1974), a novel famously structured so that each chapter introduces new letters of the alphabet in sequence. His other works, including How German Is It (1980), examine history, memory, and the legacy of war through fragmented and experimental narrative techniques. The latter won the American Book Awards.
His writing is known for its formal experimentation, intellectual rigor, and focus on how language shapes reality. Abish’s work challenged conventional storytelling and made him an important figure in contemporary experimental and postmodern literature.
Books
Eclipse Fever 1995
Among the multifaceted characters whose lives interlock are Alejandro, a once-prominent literary critic fallen into disfavor; his estranged wife, Mercedes, whom he suspects of openly conducting an...
How German Is It 1980
The question "How German Is It" underlies the conduct and actions of the characters in Walter Abish's novel, an icy panorama of contemporary Germany, in which the tradition of order and obedience, the...