And then we spend our whole lives struggling with what we have invented for ourselves. We decide what’s good and what isn’t, we draw maps of meanings for ourselves . . . You know what, sometimes it seems to me we’re living in a world that we fabricate for ourselves. She prefers animals to people and she suffers from mysterious “Ailments”. Janina is an older woman who studies astrology, translates the work of William Blake, and cares for the homes of these part-year residents. She’s a fascinating character. For example, she gives everyone she meets a name, since she believes the names we’re assigned at birth are meaningless (her own included). It’s winter and the roads are impassible the more affluent residents of this area all go somewhere else for the winter. The story is set in a rural area in southwest Poland, near the border of the Czech Republic. I read this for my book club and really enjoyed it. This is the kind of book you put down and then you find yourself thinking about long afterwards. This author won the Nobel Prize in 2018, and I can see why. It’s kind of a strange book, but then I always find translated works a little difficult to read, because they are written in a tone I’m not used to.
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