The unnamed narrator moves to another country, one she describes as a northern country of her family’s ancestors, to live with and be housekeeper to her recently divorced brother. She has been raised, she says, to curb her natural inclinations and be obedient. Certainly, her relationship with her brother looks more and more disturbing as the book progresses. For example, a point that comes out early on, she bathes and dresses her brother, who is not an invalid. Later, we learn that he insists she watch TV with both the sound and the subtitles off.
But how trustworthy a narrator is she? Her whole existence seems colored by a twisted view of life. For example, early on, she says that when she quit her job, her coworkers were so pleased to get rid of her that they gave her a big party. Well, isn’t that a tradition for a long-serving employee?
Her attitude is entirely negative—taking everything on herself. Despite being fluent in several languages, she is unable to learn the language of her new home. Almost immediately after her arrival, her brother departs for an unexplained reason, so she finds herself cut off, unable to make herself understood, with only a three-legged dog for company. She begins to sense that she’s being blamed for a series of agricultural disasters, as if she’s a witch. Since her Jewish ancestors were forced to leave this area during the war, she reads a lot into this.
Actually, she reads a lot into everything, tortuously examining every glance, every event. The book doesn’t really have a plot; it’s more about her exhaustive examinations of everything. If it hadn’t been so short, I would have quit reading it, because as another StoryGraph reader said, I felt like I was being psychologically tortured.
There is a turn to the book, but it just becomes more perverse. I read it for my Booker Project.
What? Me Read? 
I didn’t really like this one when I read it last year. I found it hard to get into, despite being so short.
I found it hard to get through.
oh good grief, not for me!
Yeah, I was reading it for my project, or I probably would have stopped.
This was a DNF for me. It counts for Novellas in November if you want it to!
Well, but posted too late. That’s okay. I can mention it in my first post for next year as a novella I read.
Not too late! The link-up is open through Saturday. I think I still have 10 novellas to review!!
Oh my!
Thanks for taking one for the team – might skip this one!
That made me laugh.
Oh good! One I don’t feel tempted to add to my TBR at all! 😉
That’s always rather satisfying.