The Pigeon
Published by Diogenes as Die Taube
Original Title: Die Taube
In five months' time the guard of a Parisian bank who has come to understand that the only purpose of his job is to open the door of the director's car, will finally have fully paid off his little garret thus marking the completion of yet another chapter of his life plan. But this fatalistic course of events is abruptly called into question by a pigeon which unexpectedly appears on a hot Friday morning in August 1984.
Contemporary Literature, Compulsory Reading
104 pages
1987

978-3-257-01736-6
Patrick
Süskind

Patrick Süskind, born in Ambach on Lake Starnberg in 1949, studied medieval and modern history in Munich and Aix-en-Provence, making a living writing screenplays. His one-man play The Double Bass was published in 1984, his novel Perfume: The Story of a Murderer in 1985, the novella The Pigeon in 1987 and The Story of Mr Sommer with illustrations by Jean-Jacques Sempé in 1991.

Photo: © Philipp Keel

Quotes

The Guardian, London
»Süskind traces the story of Jonathan Noel, whose life evolves smoothly until his dark encounter with a beady-eyed, diabolic pigeon…frightening and surprisingly moving.«