This evocation of village life in the rolling hill-country of southeastern Austria is distinctive and memorable both for the beauty of the writing and the depths of sensory impression. Climbing through the window to the parish kitchen, ice-skating on a flooded field, anticipating the arrival of St. Nikolaus and his devilish accompanists, itching in handmade woolen winter underwear, dancing on a temporary floor over a river, watching storms blow in from the north, helping with the hay harvest, making ends meet and making friends as a student in Vienna: all these memories summon the vivid...