Other People’s Troubles
9780226768168
9780226768151
Other People’s Troubles
Son of a Holocaust survivor, Jason Sommer writes of troubles that unfold at the intersection of history made and personality in making, of self and other, of wakefulness and sleep. His world is post-Holocaust, and the poetic voice in this book is one which emerges from that calamity, telling the stories of those who have finally begun to speak to him, and now through him. As a survivor’s child, Sommer must consider how to live in the wake of history, among those who are indelibly marked by it.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Last in before Dark
Meyer Tsits and the Children
Luck
The Property of the World
Joining the Story
Lifting the Stone
Not When You Call Them Do the Pictures Come
Adam’s Call
Adam Naming Himself
Amnesia
Other People’s Troubles
Mengele Shitting
I. Taking My Name
II. My Father Concentrates on His Luck
III. Speaking of the Lost
IV. Lilly, Reparations
Islanded with Children
The Find
In the Rush Hour
Aubade
The Wound
For Whoever Reads My Book in Solitude
Horizon with Sun
Last in before Dark
Meyer Tsits and the Children
Luck
The Property of the World
Joining the Story
Lifting the Stone
Not When You Call Them Do the Pictures Come
Adam’s Call
Adam Naming Himself
Amnesia
Other People’s Troubles
Mengele Shitting
I. Taking My Name
II. My Father Concentrates on His Luck
III. Speaking of the Lost
IV. Lilly, Reparations
Islanded with Children
The Find
In the Rush Hour
Aubade
The Wound
For Whoever Reads My Book in Solitude
Horizon with Sun
Awards
Society of Midland Authors: Midland Authors Award
Won
PEN Center USA West: PEN Center USA West Literary Awards
Shortlist