You Should Have Left

A Novel

By: Daniel Kehlmann, Ross Benjamin - translator

Narrated by: Robertson Dean

Length: 1 hr and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

From the internationally best-selling author of Measuring the World and F, an eerie and supernatural tale of a writer's emotional collapse.

"It is fitting that I'm beginning a new notebook up here. New surroundings and new ideas, a new beginning. Fresh air."

This passage is from the first entry of a journal kept by the narrator of Daniel Kehlmann's spellbinding new novel. It is the record of the seven days that he, his wife, and his four-year-old daughter spend in a house they have rented in the mountains of Germany - a house that thwarts the expectations of the narrator's recollection and seems to defy the very laws of physics. He is eager to finish a screenplay for a sequel to the movie that launched his career, but something he cannot explain is undermining his convictions and confidence, a process he is recording in this account of the uncanny events that unfold as he tries to understand what, exactly, is happening around him - and within him.

©2017 Daniel Kehlmann (P)2017 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"A beautifully crafted exercise in terror from one of Germany's most celebrated contemporary authors.... This novel is, in many ways, a classic haunted-house tale. There are warnings about the house from the people in the village below. There's a creeping sense of horror. There are frightening phenomena that the narrator cannot explain. And there are specters. Kehlmann uses all these familiar tropes beautifully. But he also creates a sense of existential dread that transcends the typical ghost story.... A book to keep you up at night." ( Kirkus Reviews)

"My favorite German novelist. [Ian McEwan, The Sunday Times (London)]

Great idea, but poorly executed or incomplete.

I really enjoyed the concept of Mr Kehlmann's story, but it was underdeveloped. It's closest analog might be Stephen King's "The Shining," but with less detail. He did a good job of not copying that story, but his story left me feeling unfulfilled. The characters were interesting, and I wanted to learn more about them, but got too little history to develop much sympathy for them. That the principal character was a writer attempting to complete a screen play seemed poetic in a way, since the dialogue between the characters was the most detailed and skillfully done part of the story. Still, I was left feeling like the story itself was skeletal, like an outline of something that should've been bigger. I wish I could read (understand) the German language, as I suspect some story details and dramatic impact may have been lost in the translation. But, with all due respect to Mr Dean the translator, I'll admit this is mere speculation.

I enjoyed the reading of the story. The actor's performance was entertaining. His vocal range was very interesting, with a mellifuous baritone that was quite distinctive. He reminded me a little of Orson Welles.

No doubt I'll have to read more of Mr Kehlmann's work...

Solid Listen

A Good build, and a Solid ending. Gives a Very “The Shinning” vibe when reading.

Bite sized spooky story

I enjoyed it! My kind of scary, not gross & gory. Was great listen for my 3hr trip.

Perfect for those who like atmospheric horror

The first 30 minutes are a little slow, but once you get past that this story gets extremely creepy. It kept me up for days afterwards.

Like a good episode of the original Twilight Zone

An intriguing little confection. It’s going to be made into a movie which will be quite some trick given how little actually happens in the story. Much of it is so internalized but really spooky. It will stay with you long after you’ve read it (or listened) in this case.

Well performed but at times the translation from the original German becomes somewhat apparent.

Great book.

This is the first book I've listened to that was narrated by Robertson Dean. He did a great job. The story was a little hard to get a hold of at the beginning but within 15-20 minutes I got the hang of the writer's style. I look forward to watching the movie with Kevin Bacon in the future.

very good short horror

If you liked House of Leaves and other such non-linear, eldritch architecture, you will probably enjoy this one. If I could change two things about it, I'd remove the details of the story the main character is writing (it gets confusing switching back and forth) and I'd do more exploring of the house. This is still a tantalizing story and builds an interesting world with interesting characters. I feel it deserves praise for working the difficult trick of explaining things without diminishing the mystery.

P.S. Some ppl seem confused by the ending, but I'm 99.99% sure it is working as intended, with no missing bits.

house of leaves, but bad.

I was excited when I started the book, I enjoyed the unusual writing style and the Stream of consciousness story telling. As the book went on, it became clear that there was little to no story in it. Just the ramblings of the author. Some books can get away with a rambling untrustworthy narrative. House of leaves, being a great example, but to me this felt like a poor cheap knock off version of house of leaves. All of the bark, but none of the bite. All of the set up none of the payoff. The ending is what’s most infuriating. If you have your character detach into martyrdom that needs to be earned. To me, it did not feel like the ending was earned, nor was it satisfactory in anyway.

All bark no bite

I was originally intrigued by this book after reading the summary. I’m a fan of scary, unique books and that’s what I expected of this one but I have to say overall the story was pretty uneventful. It spent a lot of time on unrelated information and it was not scary at all. I think this book was a flop for me, not interesting very ordinary not scary at all

Not scary

I didn't find this story scary at all. What a disappointment. A poor take-off of "The Shining".