“For her whole life she would sacrifice to him every quality of her own, and he wouldn't even be aware of the sacrifice, he would be surrounded by the wealth of feeling, intelligence, imagination that were hers, without knowing what to do with them, he would ruin them.”
― The Story of a New Name
― The Story of a New Name
“I discovered everywhere female automations created by men. There was nothing of ourselves, and the little there was that rose up in protest immediately became material for their manufacturing.”
― Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay
― Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay
“I know—it stayed in her head without becoming sound—I know what a comfortable life full of good intentions means, you can’t even imagine what real misery is.”
― Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay
― Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay
“There were things I couldn’t say; I could only write them. Because when I spoke, I thought; and when I wrote, I felt.”
― Vom Ende der Einsamkeit
― Vom Ende der Einsamkeit
“For the first time, I left Naples, left Campania. I discovered that I was afraid of everything: afraid of taking the wrong train, afraid of having to pee and not knowing where to do it, afraid that it would be night and I wouldn’t be able to orient myself in an unfamiliar city, afraid of being robbed. I put all my money in my bra, as my mother did, and spent hours in a state of wary anxiety that coexisted seamlessly with a growing sense of liberation.”
― The Story of a New Name
― The Story of a New Name
Kaustav’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Kaustav’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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