Conta, Manfred von. The Deathbringer (London: Calder & Boyars, 1971) 224 p. Translated from the German by Eva Figes. Originally published as Der Totmacher (Zurich: Diogenes Verlag, 1969).

Xaver Ykdrasil Zangl owns a lending library in Vienna. He generally avoids contact with others. "The customers he liked best were those that already knew the title of the book they wanted to borrow. They named the title and he went to fetch the book from the shelves whilst they silently filled in the index card he had pushed towards them. He knew that many customers, who would have liked a chat about books or neighbours with him, were put off by his taciturn manner and did not come back. But this did not bother him." (p. 6). Eventually his only customers are men wanting to borrow books from the "third bookcase" which is filled with pornography. Zangl gradually becomes more and more cut off from reality, and eventually gives all the books away in order to spend all his time writing in his diary. During this period he commits two murders. Toward the end of the story he spends two weeks in the periodical room of the national library, reading philosophy. Weeks afterward he is found in his apartment eating his excrement and smearing it on the walls.