Published in German in 1963, Thomas Bernhard's first novel, Frost, finally appears in English this fall from Knopf. Translated by Michael Hofmann, the novel follows an unnamed surgical student who travels to a grim mining town where he must secretly observe the medical condition of a dying painter named Strauch. First Day A medical assistantship consists of more than spectating at complicated bowel operations, cutting open stomach linings, bracketing off lungs, and sawing off feet; and it doesn't just consist of thumbing closed the eyes of the dead, and hauling babies out into the world eith...
