The Book of Words

by Jenny Erpenbeck

Translated from the original German by Susan Bernofsky

In The Book of Words, Jenny Erpenbeck captures with amazing virtuosity the inner life of a young girl who survives the totalitarian regime of a curiously unnamed South American country (most likely Argentina during the "dirty war"). Raised by parents whose real identity ends up shocking her, the girl comes of age in a country where gunshots are mistaken for blown tires, innocent citizens are dragged off buses, and tortured and disappeared friends and family return to visit her from the dead.

This is the long-awaited first novel from one of the most original and memorable writers working today.

(From Publisher).

JENNY ERPENBECK was born in East Berlin in 1967. She has worked on opera and musical productions since 1991, and now lives in Berlin. Her books of fiction have been translated worldwide.

An interesting vision of the world thorough the eyes of a child. The world of a child brought up in a totalitarian regime. A story of a family's secrets. The author creates a dictionary of her own. A story that shows how much a man can keep for himself.