Welcome to Litsy!

Approaches to grief: 1) screaming at trees, 2) leaving voicemails for the dead. Slim volume, sparse and deadpan. Solid trans. from the Dutch by Jozef van der Voort. 2020

9 “One guy I spoke to suggested I get some therapy. What kind? I asked. I didn‘t dare tell him I‘d already tried just about everything and my last therapist and I had both given up in the end.”

11 “I had no time at all for a lot of things that happened all the time.”

After that, I stopped putting the people I met into categories like beautiful or ugly, friendly or unfriendly. Now I think, Is this someone I'd want to sit with in the dark, by the sea?
My next-door neighbour is a Jewish woman who survived the war. She said, If you want to sit in the dark with somebody, it means they're a good person.

Selection of stories from the tagged book are translated into English as "Something has to happen". Centred on grief and sadness these make for a dark read.