In the first volume of his autobiographical writings, Thomas Bernhard conducts an investigation into the causes that spares nothing and no one: the boarding school was a prison, the city of Salzburg a terminal illness, and destruction was omnipresent. The only beacon of light was his grandfather, who told him about Mozart, Rembrandt, and Beethoven. These "causes," which Bernhard hints at more than just subtly, leave indelible marks throughout his entire work. With a precise, economical, almost realistic style and an evocative technique of repetition and variation, Lukas Kummer succeeds in making Thomas Bernhard's memories of the horrors of boarding school, war, and National Socialism visible. A congenial graphic novel that approaches the great author with respect and artistic freshness.