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The Wall (novel)The Wall (German: Die Wand) is a 1963 novel by Austrian writer Marlen Haushofer. Considered the author's finest work, The Wall is an example of dystopian fiction. The English translation by Shaun Whiteside was published by Cleis Press in 1990.

The novel's main character is a 40-something woman whose name the reader never learns. She tries to survive a cataclysmic event: while vacationing in a hunting lodge in the Austrian mountains, a transparent wall has been placed that closes her off from the outside world; all life outside the wall appears to have died, possibly in a nuclear event. With a dog, a cow, and a cat as her sole companions, she struggles to survive and to come to terms with the situation. Facing fear and loneliness, she writes an account of her isolation without knowing whether or not anyone will ever read it.

Plot
Accompanied by her cousin and her cousin's husband, the 40-year-old narrator travels to the Austrian mountains. They plan on staying in a hunting lodge for the weekend, but the next morning the woman finds herself alone with her cousins' dog, Luchs. The couple, who planned on having dinner in the valley, did not return. The woman leaves to look for the couple but soon discovers why they did not come back: a seemingly endless, invisible wall separates her from the other side of the valley.

In an attempt to find out what had happened, she uses binoculars to look for other people. The only other person she can see is a man who seems to be frozen still. It seems to her that a tragedy killed all living creatures on the other side of the wall. She is entirely alone, protected and trapped, in equal measure, by the invisible wall.

All her attempts to get to the other side of the wall fail, so she slowly starts to adjust to her new situation. Because the area in which she is trapped is fairly wide, she learns to live off her supplies, the fruits and animals of the surrounding forest, and her garden. Besides looking after herself she soon starts to look after the animals who are dependent on her: a dog, cats, and a pregnant cow. With the winter coming she starts writing a report that makes up the book, unsure whether anyone will ever read it.

Towards the end of the novel, the first and only other person appears. He kills her dog and calf, apparently with no reason for doing so. She shoots him, ending perhaps her only chance of ever interacting with a human again.

The story ends with her writing that the cow is pregnant again, and she is hoping that the cat will have new kittens. But she is also running out of ammunition and matches, so her future might become even more difficult. At the end of the book, her fate is unknown.

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