The next in my challenge: A book translated into English. I’ll confess, what I really wanted to read was The Tin Drum, which an old boyfriend of mine raved about recently. But, you know, it’s reeeeaaaallly long. And, also, I found Next World Novella was already on my Kindle. I’m not sure how it got there – perhaps an offer which I snapped up, perhaps a recommendation since forgotten.

It was worth the read. Marriage, afterlife, writing, pain, revenge, threesomes…!

What I liked about it most were the bits from the narrator’s own book – horribly written and shamelessly naive. It gave me some ideas for That Novel I’m intending to write one day. Not that I intend it to be horribly written, just that this approach allows for terrible writing and is still beautiful.

This is a book about a man who promises he will meet his wife after death to hold her hand into the next life… and why that might not happen. But it’s also a story of why you should always speak the truth as soon as you know it, and not wait until it’s too late.

My husband and I don’t agree about what might happen after death, but I’d like to believe we’ll do it together, nonetheless. I want to hold his hand to everywhere.