Korrektur by Thomas Bernhard

A first-person narrator chronicles the life of an ascetic, compulsive man who withdraws to the countryside and dedicates himself to a single obsessive project: the precise design and construction of a cone-shaped refuge meant to remedy and regulate the life of a fragile loved one. The novel traces how his demand for absolute geometrical and moral order, his self-isolation, and relentless perfectionism warp relationships and understanding, driving both creator and intended beneficiary toward a bleak, irrevocable outcome.