Related content
AUTHOR
Jente Posthuma
Jente Posthuma’s critically acclaimed first novel, Mensen zonder…
DiscoverJente Posthuma at West Cork Literary Festival
In this event we are joined by Sarah Byrne, an author from Cork but living in Paris, who will read from her forthcoming essay collection Paper People and Dutch author Jente Posthuma who will read from her novel What I’d Rather Not Think About.
What I'd Rather Not Think About was shortlisted for the European Union Prize for Literature after it was published in Dutch in 2020. It has now been translated into English by Sarah Timmer Harvey.
Sarah and Jente will be in conversation with Rachel Andrews.
What I’d Rather Not Think About
SHORTLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE
What if one half of a pair of twins no longer wants to live? What if the other can’t live without them?
This question lies at the heart of Jente Posthuma’s deceptively simple What I’d Rather Not Think About. The narrator is a twin whose brother has recently taken his own life. She looks back on their childhood, and tells of their adult lives: how her brother tried to find happiness, but lost himself in various men and the Bhagwan movement, though never completely.
In brief, precise vignettes, full of gentle melancholy and surprising humour, Posthuma tells…
