Just finished
I Who Have Never Known Men, by
Jacqueline Harpman, a literary novel with elements of science fiction. (Don't be scared away because it's science fiction; there are no spaceships or time machines in this one.
)
This is one of the most incredibly (and sadly) compassionate novels I have read in a long time, a story about the resilience of survival and dealing with 'aloneness' (with many different interpretations of the that word and how it impacts the main character). It is a novel about a woman who discovers who she is and the limitations of her life while surviving in a dystopian world. I can say without embarrassment that it broke my heart as I was reading it.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
And now to my re-read (after 40-some years) of
The Lover, by
Marguerite Duras.
After that, I plan to re-read
Anna Kavan's novel
Asylum Piece, a writer I've enjoyed for many, many years.
Then I plan to read the great
Stefan Zweig:
Letter From an Unknown Woman. I'm well acquainted with his work.
After Zweig, I plan to settle back for a nice long leisurely read of
A Man Called Ove: A Novel, by
Fredrik Backman.
Happy reading, you strange creatures of the night.