Overstaying

As intense and enigmatic as it is brilliantly sly, Koch's Kafkaesque debut mines themes of hospitality, integration and control through the tale of a solitary woman in a Swiss village whose life is turned upside-down by an obscure visitor.

An isolated woman clashes with an enigmatic visitor in this funny, jagged parable about integration, difference and hospitality

An isolated young woman living in a small Swiss town decides to take in a mysterious stranger, known only as 'the visitor'. His arrival introduces disturbance into her carefully sealed life, and the longer he stays, the more confounding he becomes. His joy causes her sadness, his sleep brings her insomnia, and she becomes convinced he is sneaking into her room, even eating her socks. As she tries to impose orders and regulations on her opaque visitor, the woman's fantasies of power and control grow ever wilder.

Sly, wilful and full of slanted humour, Overstaying is a profound and uncanny exploration of hospitality, integration and the stranger within all of us.

Translated from German by Damion Searls.