The Discomfort of Evening

Ten-year-old Jas lives with her strictly religious parents and her siblings on a dairy farm where waste and frivolity are akin to sin. Despite the dreary routine of their days, Jas has a unique way of experiencing her world: her face soft like cheese under her mother¡¯s hands; the texture of green warts, like capers, on migrating toads in the village; the sound of ¡°blush words¡± that aren¡¯t in the Bible. One icy morning, the disciplined rhythm of her family's life is ruptured by a tragic accident, and Jas is convinced she is to blame. As her parents' suffering makes them increasingly distant, Jas and her siblings develop a curiosity about death that leads them into disturbing rituals and fantasies. Cocooned in her red winter coat, Jas dreams of ¡°the other side¡± and of salvation, not knowing where this dreaming will finally lead her. A bestseller in the Netherlands, Marieke Lucas Rijneveld's radical debut novel The Discomfort of Eveningoffers readers a rare vision of rural and religious life in the Netherlands. In it, they ask: In the absence of comfort and care, what can the mind of a child invent to protect itself? And what happens when that is not enough? With stunning psychological acuity and images of haunting, violent beauty, Rijneveld has created a captivating world of language unlike any other.