The Old Child and the Book of Words

The Old Child and the Book of Words tells of two girls. One stands in a street with an empty bucket, remembering neither her name nor her family or past. The other is raised among people she knows: a nurse who cared for her in infancy, a piano instructor, a gardener, a close companion, and a mother who kept her distance. These figures start to vanish from her life strangely. Both girls draw us into memory's unsure and thorny ground, where words become clues to what was hidden, forgotten, or erased.

Why You Should Read?

• Meet a girl who waits on a street with a bucket and no memories.
• Follow another girl as people she knows begin to leave her life.
• Explore how memory can be uncertain, spiky, and full of hidden things.
• Understand how words may work as clues to reveal what was forgotten or erased.

About the Author

Jenny Erpenbeck was born on 12 March 1967. She is German and works as an opera director and writer. For The End of Days, she received the 2015 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, and for Kairos, she received the 2024 International Booker Prize.