- Published: 07/11/2024
- ISBN: 9781846276767
- Granta Books
- 192 pages
The Old Child And The Book Of Words
Jenny Erpenbeck
Translated by Susan Bernofsky
A child is found standing on the street with an empty bucket in her hand and no memory of her name, her family or her past. Elsewhere, a girl grows up surrounded by familiar faces – a wet nurse, a piano teacher, a gardener, a best friend and a distant mother – but soon finds them slipping mysteriously from her life. In the company of these girls, we are compelled to tread the uncertain and spiky terrain of memory, where words are dropped like clues to reveal what has been hidden, forgotten or erased.
£9.99
A haunting, offbeat novella of real profundity
Lionel Shriver, author of WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN
With the detached spare prose and mysterious internal logic of a fairy tale, the writing has a dark, transformative power - it gets into the blood stream and refuses to leave. Beguiling and original
The Times
Intense and beautifully written
Time Out
From the Same Author
Jenny Erpenbeck on Granta.com
Essays & Memoir | Granta 152
Open Bookkeeping
Jenny Erpenbeck
‘I write an obituary that appears in the newspaper that she always used to read while drinking her afternoon tea. I receive €170.03 for the obituary.’
Translated from the German by Kurt Beals.