The new book by the German-Austrian author Daniel Kehlmann, “You Should Have Left,” is a minor trick for him, but a neat one. This mind-bending novella about a writer losing his marbles contains images that startle and linger.

Kehlmann was barely into his 30s when his lively novel “Measuring the World” (2005), set in the 19th century, about the naturalist Alexander von Humboldt and the mathematician Carl Gauss, made him a star in Germany. It was his sixth book of fiction, but it became his first novel translated into English (and many other languages), and it became an international best seller.

Kehlmann is now in his early 40s, and his reputation has not reached escape velocity in the United States, though his last book, “F,” about the varied fates of three brothers, was another rewarding, finely written effort. “You Should Have Left,” in both size and content, feels like a bit of batting practice before the next game that counts.

The unnamed narrator is a screenwriter who has retreated to a beautiful, minimalist house in the German mountains that he rented on Airbnb. He’s there with his 4-year-old daughter, Esther, and his wife, Susanna.