Baron Bagge

Originally published in 1936, this haunting and beautiful novella from Austrian writer Lernet-Holenia (Count Luna) imagines battlefield folly as his country was once again about to be swept into war. The setup is simple: in 1915, a calvary squad with orders to scout for Russian positions west of the Carpathains is driven by their captain, Herr von Semler-Wasserneuburg, on a suicide mission. Along the way, though, things get weird. Semler’s fellow officer Baron Bagge recognizes a small village they ride through as a place his mother once visited. He’s surprised to see no sign of the enemy, and to be greeted by a woman named Charlotte Szent-Kiraly, who claims to know him and to be in love with him. Everything feels out of time to Bagge—the opulent feasts, the antiquated costumes worn at parties—but he’s the only one who notices. The author brings humor and horror to his account of the heavy-drinking Semler’s increasingly irrational obsession with finding the enemy, and surprising poignancy to the pull of Charlotte and the Szent-Kiraly household on Bagge. Readers will be transfixed. (Oct.)