Five stars for the constant shifting of the layers of the narrative, which Bernhard has developed to the point of a type of poetry in itself, and which W. G. Sebald did a perfect imitation of in Austerlitz (and particularly for the topmost layer, which is acknowledged only at the very beginning and the very end); five stars for the story of the doubling of the Tintoretto; and five stars for the final sentence, which might be the shortest in the entire book. Everything else is merely great.