The Piano Teacher
Elfriede Jelinek · b. 1946 · Austria
Originally Die Klavierspielerin (German) · translated by Joachim Neugroschel
Why it matters
Erika Kohut, nearing forty and still sharing her mother's bed, polices her students by day and haunts peep shows by night, until a student decides to love her. The most unflinching novel ever written about repression's machinery, and Jelinek's masterpiece.
At a glance
psychological novel
Difficulty 7/10slow pace288 pagesCold, punning, register-shifting narration and scenes of sexual cruelty that spare the reader nothing.
Deep dive
Erika Kohut has spent forty years having her body and ambition managed by her mother; what happens when a student's desire finally asks her to manage her own.
