Gina Ochsner è un'autrice le cui storie si addentrano nelle complessità della connessione umana e nell'incessante ricerca di significato. La sua prosa è caratterizzata da un'intensità lirica, che intreccia momenti di profonda vulnerabilità con un crudo realismo. Attraverso le sue narrazioni, esplora gli intricati paesaggi della perdita, della resilienza e della forza silenziosa che si trova nell'esistenza quotidiana. Ochsner impiega magistralmente il linguaggio per illuminare le correnti nascoste della vita interiore dei suoi personaggi e le loro lotte spesso inespresse.
The collection explores the poignant aftermath of love and loss, capturing the complexity of human emotions. Gina Ochsner's storytelling reveals how individuals navigate their deepest sorrows while finding resilience and hope. With her acclaimed style, she delves into the capacity of the human heart to embrace both pain and healing, offering readers a profound reflection on life's most challenging moments.
From a critically acclaimed fiction writer comes the moving story of a boy with extraordinary ears who -- with the help of a cache of his great-grandmother's letters -- brings healing to a town burdened by the sins of its past. Young Maris has been summoned to his mother's bedside as she nears the end of her life; she feels she must tell him her version of their family history, the story of his early life, and the ways in which he changed the lives of others. Maris was born with what some might call a blessing and others might deem a curse: his very large, very special ears enable him to hear the secrets of the dead, as well as the memories that haunt his Latvian hometown. Nestled in the woodlands on the banks of the Aiviekste River, their town suffered the ravages of war, then the cold shock of independence. As a boy, Maris found himself heir to an odd assortment of hidden letters; a school project provided the chance to share them, forcing the town to hear the truth from the past and face what it meant for their future. With "luminous writing [and] affection for her characters" (New York Times), Gina Ochsner creates an intimate, hopeful portrait of a fascinating town in all its complications and charm. She shows us how, despite years of distrust, a community can come through love and loss to the joy of understanding -- enabled by a great-grandmother's legacy, a flood, and a boy with very special ears.
A fable-like, magical debut in which the author takes readers into her characters' dreams, and memories, and hearts, and shows the resilience of human hope and imagination in even the most unlikely, post-Soviet surroundings.