What I’d Rather Not Think About: shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2024 - Couverture souple

Posthuma, Jente

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1914484711 ISBN 13 : 9781914484711

Editeur : Scribe Publications, 2023

Synopsis

Longlisted for the 2024 international booker prize

What if one half of a pair of twins no longer wants to live? What if the other can't live without them?

This question lies at the heart of Jente Posthuma's deceptively simple What I'd Rather Not Think About. The narrator is a twin whose brother has recently taken his own life. She looks back on their childhood, and tells of their adult lives: how her brother tried to find happiness, but lost himself in various men and the Bhagwan movement, though never completely.

In brief, precise vignettes, full of gentle melancholy and surprising humour, Posthuma tells the story of a depressive brother, viewed from the perspective of the sister who both loves and resents her twin, struggles to understand him, and misses him terribly.

'A unique story of a twin brother and sister, wryly funny and heartbreakingly sad. Her characters desperately try to make sense of our ever more complex world. This is a rare book. And Jente Posthuma is a treasure and a hell of a writer.' ,Herman Koch, international bestselling author of The Dinner

'The strength here is truly in the minimalist prose - razor-sharp sentences that often slot together perfectly in a seemingly nonchalant way. The result is a powerful story about death, life, and survival.' ,Nederlands Dagblad

A propos du livre

À propos des auteurs

Jente Posthuma is a Dutch writer whose first novel, People With No Charisma, was published in the Netherlands to critical acclaim. Her second novel, What I’d Rather Not Think About (2020) was shortlisted for the European Union Prize for Literature. The English-language translation by Sarah Timmer Harvey was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2024. The translation rights of What I’d Rather Not Think About have been sold in more than fifteen countries. Posthuma’s third book Witch! Witch! Witch! (2023) is an idiosyncratic and witty retelling of three ancient Dutch sagas. Posthuma is currently working on a memoir.

Sarah Timmer Harvey is a translator and writer currently based in Woodstock, New York. She holds an MFA from Columbia University in New York and a BA from Southern Cross University. Reconstruction, their translation of stories written by the Dutch Surinamese writer Karin Amatmoekrim was published in 2020, and their translation of Thistle by Nadia de Vries was published in 2024. Sarah’s translations of Dutch-language poetry and prose have appeared in Modern Poetry in Translation, Asymptote, The Los Angeles Review, and elsewhere. Born in Australia, she lived and worked in the Netherlands for fourteen years before moving to New York City in 2013.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Scribe Publications
• Date d'édition: 2023
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1914484711
• ISBN 13: 9781914484711
• Reliure: Broché
• Numéro d'édition: 1
• Nombre de pages: 224
• Coordonnées du fabricant: Van Ditmar Boeken, VDB Sales; sales@vanditmar.nl; ; Hondiuslaan 44; Utrecht; 3528 AB; Pays-Bas