The collection of prose texts “The Voice Imitator” (1978) stands apart in the literary heritage of T. Bernhard. When it appeared, the book was perceived as something not inherent to Bernhard, not organic for him. These strange stories, resembling either newspaper articles from the “Incidents” section, or macabre anecdotes, or horror stories, are told by an impersonal narrator, sometimes hiding behind an equally impersonal “we”, in a deliberately neutral, dry -documentary tone. The writer himself characterized these texts as “one hundred and four free associations and inventions, not devoid of a philosophical beginning.” Their gloomy coloring and the concentration of micro-plots around the theme of madness and death can suppress the reader, but they can also make him laugh, captivate him with the very absurdity of “life” and historical and anecdotal situations that the author tirelessly invents or paraphrases. (A.Belobratov. Thomas Bernhard: Twenty years later)