Geschwister Tanner

by Robert Walser

"Geschwister Tanner" by Robert Walser is a novel written in 1906. Twenty-year-old Simon Tanner drifts through jobs and life, searching for his place in the world. He moves from bank clerk to bookseller to nurse, rejecting stability and security. His accomplished siblings—a teacher, a scholar, a painter, and a brother in an asylum—watch as Simon embraces aimlessness over ambition. Through encounters with lovers, employers, and family, he chooses the present moment over any promised future.