Comment by fasterik

Bernhard is fantastic. I would recommend Woodcutters as a starting point. It's shorter, funnier, and less oppressive than Correction (which is his magnum opus). Apparently he was at least somewhat as unhinged in real life as in his writing. He was notorious for either refusing literary prizes or showing up at the ceremony just to rant and insult the audience, which he wrote about in a memoir titled My Prizes. He was a big influence on W.G. Sebald, another great German language writer (my personal favorite) who makes an appearance in McCarthy's library.