The Loft

The Loft (Die Mansarde) is a novel by Austrian writer Marlen Haushofer, published in 1969. In 2011, the novel was translated into English by Amanda Prantera and published by Serbian Classics Press. At the time of writing, Haushofer was already seriously ill. With her final novel, she delivers a socio-psychological study of a housewife's existence and middle-class married life in Austria's first post-war generation. The narrator's temporary deafness and her regular retreat to the attic symbolize the need for escape from reality. Recurring motifs in Haushofer's work that are also found in this novel include loneliness in marriage and the inadequacy of communication between the sexes.