The stories in László Krasnahorkai's The World Goes On, this week's Book of the Week at VOLUME, convey the simultaneous striving and resignation of lives lived as a sort of ongoing eventless apocalypse (so to call it).

>> Read Thomas's Review.

>> "The narrators in The World Goes On find themselves wandering in a world of forgotten revelations and corrupted messages, blindly groping toward ineffable essences that forever remain out of reach."

>> "This collection – a masterpiece of invention, utterly different from everything else – is hugely unsettling and affecting: to meet Krasznahorkai’s characters, to read his breathless, twisting sentences, is to feel altered."

>> "It's as though there's a black hole hiding behind the pages."

>> Read a sample story, 'Downhill on a Forest Road'.

>> Read another, 'Chasing Waterfalls'. 

>> Krasznahorkai was awarded the 2015 Man Booker International Prize. 

>> What are the advantages, disadvantages and dangers of translation?

>> "Reality examined to the point of madness." 

>> Between theatre and reality (recommended interview).

>> Krasznahorkai's novel Satantango was made into a 7-hour film by Hungarian master Bela Tarr. Tarr and Krasznahorkai have worked together on a number of occasions. 

>> The whale scene from The Melancholy of Resistance (filmed as The Werckmeister Harmonies by Bela Tarr) is revisited in one of the stories in The World Goes On. 

>> "The deepest loss is the loss of a culture of poverty. Nowadays we only have people who don't have money, but everyone has the same dream." 

>> The author's website. 

>> FaceBook, even. 

>> Is avoiding madness like avoiding a heart attack? 

>> "The sublimely startled appearance of a corpse reanimated with electric shocks." Warning: content may disturb. 

>> Krasznahorkai at VOLUME.