I knew all about death/ Jeroen Brouwers
Before I could read, I knew all about death. It was so much a part of my early years to be bluntly confronted with it that, as far as I knew, there was no emotion attached to it—no fear, no sorrow, no revulsion.
A person who died would be rolled into a rush mat and taken away on a handcart. Her possessions, especially if they included a crumb or a grain of food, were fought over, and the place she vacated would be “tchooped” even before the corpse was removed. (To tchoop was a camp word meaning to take possession or “claim.”)
Carmela and Pepe
Some of my readers have received emails from Amazon to let them know that my book Carmela and Pepe (the two versions: Spanish and English) was available for purchase. I published it last July 16, my mother’s Saint Day. I notified no one. It is such an extraordinary memoir! I left it adrift in the […]
