As if some chained being had to shake its essence free, as if art taken to its limit were a form of howling. Explodes from its first line. He wants to break free, attempts to stretch open the walls, but he has been tautened by them, and there he remains in this tautening, in this constraint, and there is nothing to do but howl. To create this work that strains against all constraints, László Krasznahorkai began from one of Max Neumann’s paintings; Neumann, spurred into action, created 14 more images, which unleashed an additional 13 texts from the author. Is the rare case of two matchless artists meeting across disciplines, and New Directions is very proud to publish a limited edition of this powerful novella, exquisitely produced by Sylph Editions and the Cahiers Series of the American University of Paris with a deluxe seven-stage printing process for the amazing Neumann images. All pages are intact, but there is visible wear on the front page. There are stains on some of the back pages, shown in the photos. Other pages are mostly or entirely clean, and very much readable.