Patrick Süskind’s "The Tale of Herr Sommer" Summary

German writer Patrick Süskind’s lyrical novella "The Tale of Herr Sommer" was written in 1991 and became one of the author’s key works in the short epic genre. The book is illustrated by the renowned French artist Jean-Jacques Sempé. The story is told by an unnamed narrator, whose memories of childhood and adolescence are closely intertwined with episodes from the life of an eccentric and lonely neighbor.

The story is part of the writer’s conventional cycle of short prose, which also includes “Double Bass” (1981) and “The Dove” (1987), occupying a place in Suskind’s work as a deep philosophical meditation on childhood trauma and human isolation.

The book is an adult’s autobiographical memoir of the years he spent in the lakeside village of Nizhneye Ozero. The narrator recalls a time when he was a child, able to climb trees and believing he could fly. Meanwhile, in the neighboring village of Verkhneye Ozero, lived a strange man named Sommer. No one knew his name or profession, while his wife made dolls. Mr. Sommer was distinguished by the fact that he spent 12 to 16 hours a day on his feet, continuously hiking 20 to 40 km in all seasons and weather. He carried a long hazel walking stick and an empty backpack containing only a sandwich and a cape.

The narrator’s first personal encounter with Mr. Sommer occurred during a terrible hailstorm. The narrator’s father, driving by, attempted to give the drenched Sommer a ride, insistently shouting that he would ruin himself. The stranger stopped, thumped him with his stick several times, and desperately cried out the only intelligible phrase in his life: "Just leave me alone!" The narrator’s family later discussed this event over dinner: his mother insisted that Sommer suffered from severe claustrophobia, making him incapable of being in a confined space.

The protagonist’s childhood was filled with its own joys and dramas. In elementary school, he had an unrequited crush on his classmate, Caroline Kückelmann. He spent the weekend planning a route to see her home: he prepared treats from the beech tree and concocted stories. However, on Monday, the girl refused to go with him, as her plans had changed. Returning home alone, the boy saw only the quickly striding speck of Mr. Sommer on the horizon.

A year later, the hero learned to ride a bicycle — a requirement for piano lessons with the strict and hot-tempered Miss Marie-Louise Funkel in Upper Ozero. The teacher lived with her elderly mother, whom everyone called "Ma." One day, due to a ruined country trip and being chased by a vicious dog, the hero was late for class. Miss Funkel flew into a rage, scolded the boy, and forced him to play. During a four-hand performance, the teacher sneezed, and mucus from her nose ended up on the key black F-sharp key. Unwilling to touch the dirt, the boy deliberately played an F-flat, causing Miss Funkel to throw a tantrum, trash the room, and throw him out.

Shocked by the injustice of the world, a ten-year-old boy decided to commit suicide. He climbed a 30-meter-high pine tree near a transformer box and prepared to jump. Imagining his own lavish funeral, he was about to close his eyes when he heard the sound of a stick. Mr. Sommer appeared under the tree. The anguished wanderer, frantically looking around, quickly ate a sandwich, drank water from a flask, and continued on his way. The sight of a man desperately clinging to existence and fleeing from inner pain made the boy abandon the idea of death.

About six years passed. The narrator had grown to 170 cm, mastered cycling to perfection, read Maupassant, and solved complex equations. By then, Mr. Sommer had become a widower, moved into the attic of the fisherman Riedl, and had become an inconspicuous feature of the landscape for the locals.

One autumn evening, returning from watching television with his friend Cornelius Michel, he stopped at the quarry to put on his fallen bicycle chain. Wiping his greasy hands on the leaves by the lake, he saw Mr. Sommer standing in the water, fully clothed and holding a walking stick. Step by step, pushing himself with his stick, Sommer moved westward into the lake. When the water reached his shoulders, he dropped his stick and continued underwater until he was completely submerged. Only his straw hat floated above the surface, and then a few air bubbles rose.

The young man was the only witness to Sommer’s death. He neither called for help nor ran to the village. Only a month later did the police and local residents notice the old man’s disappearance and placed an advertisement in the newspaper, giving his full name — Maximilian Ernst Egidius Sommer. However, no one came to the lake to look for him, and he was soon forgotten. The narrator kept this secret for the rest of his life, respecting Mr. Sommer’s final, pleading request to leave him alone.