The most important of these prose texts is "Der Schatten des Körpers des Kutschers" ("The Shadow of the Body of the Coachman", 1952). It is a nearly hermetic experimental work which explores language through the use of surreal, disturbing imagery whereby an apparent rural idyll is transformed into a kafkaesque nightmare. The Surrealist effect was enhanced by collages in the style of Max Ernst, so-called xylography, which Peter Weiss created for the book. "Coachman" has been linked both to the French "nouveau roman" of Alain Robbe-Grillet and Raymond Queneau, as well as to French absurdist works by Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, and Jean Genet. When it was eventually published in Germany in 1960 it put its 45 years old writer at the forefront of the West German literary scene. Weiss abandoned painting and filmmaking and turned exclusively to writing. Nearly all his subsequent works – and all of the major ones – are written in German. His next prose work, "Abschied von den Eltern" ("Leavetaking", 1959/60) was less hermetic than "Coachman" and strongly autobiographical. It was not only a critical but also a public success, as was its follow-up "Fluchtpunkt" ("Vanishing Point", 1962)