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Jenny Erpenbeck Quotes

Everything had kept getting less, they'd had to leave behind more and more baggage, or else it was taken from them, as though they were now too weak to carry all those things that are part of life, as though someone

Everything had kept getting less, they'd had to leave behind more and more baggage, or else it was taken from them, as though they were now too weak to carry all those things that are part of life, as though someone were trying to force them into old age by relieving them of all this.

Jenny Erpenbeck
Taken, Age, Trying
Jenny Erpenbeck (2011). “Visitation”, p.58, Granta Books

Which means that in the end there are certain things you can take with you when you flee, things that have no weight, such as music.

Jenny Erpenbeck
Mean, Weight, Certain
Jenny Erpenbeck (2010). “Visitation”, p.108, New Directions Publishing

Home. When it rains, you can smell the leaves in the forest and the sand. It's all so small and mild, the landscape surrounding the lake, so manageable. The leaves and the sand are so close, it's as if you might, if you wanted, pull them on over your head. And the lake always laps at the shore so gently, licking the hand you dip into it like a young dog, and the water is soft and shallow.

Jenny Erpenbeck
Dog, Rain, Home
Jenny Erpenbeck (2011). “Visitation”, p.34, Granta Books

Nothing is nicer than diving with your eyes open. Diving down as far as the shimmering legs of your mother and father who have just come back from swimming and now are wading to shore through the shallow water. Nothing more fun than to tickle them and to hear, muffled by the water, how they shriek because they know it will make their child happy.

Jenny Erpenbeck
Mother, Children, Fun
Jenny Erpenbeck (2011). “Visitation”, p.62, Granta Books

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