...and told her he had to go out, there was something he had to do, catching her on the verge of a nervous breakdown while she was scraping burnt milk off the bottom of a pot, with the pee-soaked child trying to climb her leg, while she was begging the baby to wait, to wait for just one second, all the while trying with enormous difficulty to refrain from screaming or breaking something, because the child was bawling angrily and slapping at her thigh with tiny hands, demanding the right that every child should be able to claim, not to have to wait, just as he demanded the right that every man should be able to claim to pursue goals more noble than washing the dishes and wiping up urine. Without having to explain himself.

I won't be long, he said and ran out into the stairwell.

This is a novella that hits hard. In it, a couple live together unhappily, both under enormous stress. She's the only one working as well as the only one taking care of their baby and apartment. He's angry all the time; at the situation they are in, that their country is in, that he is in. She's frustrated and reactive. The neighbors complain about the noise. But, somehow, they remain together, tied by their initial attraction to each other and the child they share. There's no work and no money, and whether they make it through is uncertain.

The guard could have been his father. He had the familiar expression of bewilderment that marked the faces of the fathers of his generation, the disabled and other war veterans who suddenly found themselves on the wrong side, though they'd done nothing but follow orders, and so they couldn't fathom how all this had come about, this wretched inversion; why, having only ever done their duty, done their job honestly, the only thing they had to show for it were skeletons and debt.

While this novella remains firmly centered on the specific complaints of this couple, it's also a look at a nation losing hope and how that plays out in individual lives. The man in this book attends protests, without real conviction about the purpose of each one, just that protest is necessary to him. It's a way for him to feel alive, even as he doesn't believe that it changes anything.

I had a hard time reading this book, it's often raw and unpleasant, especially the husband's anger directed at his wife. Sajko certainly knows how to make a situation feel horrifically real in very few words. I can see why it was shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award, which is a great source for books in translation.… (more)