Ingeborg Bachmat – Malina. A gift book bound in genuine leather

Ingeborg Bachmat – Malina. A gift book bound in genuine leather.

“Malina” is a radical modernist novel and a hypnotic immersion into the disintegrating consciousness of a woman in love. The book is structured as an autobiographical labyrinth of thoughts, dreams, and letters of an unnamed writer living in post‑war Vienna. Her entire life is dominated by a painful, agonizing dependence on her selfish lover, Ivan. At the same time, Malina lives in her apartment — a mysterious, cold intellectual who embodies the absolute dictate of logic. As the narrative unfolds, Malina becomes increasingly clear as not a real partner, but a repressed male double of the heroine herself. Through this internal split, Bachmann explores the impossibility of a woman’s existence and creativity in a patriarchal world. The text is imbued with hidden traumas from the past, linking personal drama to the catastrophes of European history. The novel ends with the tragic disappearance of the narrator, who literally dissolves into the wall of the house. The ending leaves the reader alone with Malina and the chilling acknowledgment of the murder that has been committed.