Woodcutters (German title: Holzfällen) is a novel by Thomas Bernhard, originally published in German in 1984. A roman à clef, its subject is the theatre and it forms the second part of a trilogy, between The Loser (1983) and Old Masters (1985) which deal with music and painting respectively. An English translation by David McLintock was published as Woodcutters in 1987; another English translation by Ewald Osers was published in 1988 under the title Cutting Timber: An Irritation. Its publication created an uproar in Austria, where became a bestseller before a defamation lawsuit by the composer resulted in a court order to pulp the remaining copies; Lampersberg, a former friend of Bernhard's, subsequently dropped the suit.