I don't quite know how she's done this. Mukasonga tells a sensitive tale about vulnerable characters but she manages to make it sweeping, over long stretches of time and through entire generations of a village. She manages to make the characters specific and also anonymous. She manages to tell a tale from the distant perspective of the kind of far removed 3rd person you might hear around a campfire or read in an historical account but she does all of this in 150 pages and she makes it look easy. The amount of craft in this novel is incredible and just so goddamned impressive.

And the themes here are profound. This is no small book however short. Mukasonga is quickly becoming one of my favorite writers.