![]() ![]() For reasons I couldn't understand, I found it difficult to connect with the world. In my own short life, I had a sadness whose cause I could not put in words, and a yearning for friendship I could not express in my interactions with my peers. Every word and person and loss had a purpose. Pain existed only in the service of the story, and it always came to an end. Every secret was revealed and understood. In those stories, strangers always came to fully know each other. I opened this book despite the fact that, at 11, I was beginning to suspect that all books were nothing more than cruel lies.Īll the books that were mine - like Erich Kastner's books, or Anne of Green Gables - promised meaning and closure that I found nowhere in real life. Still, it was a miracle that I opened it. Maybe I sought it out because it was not one of my books. ![]() Maybe I opened it because it had a picture of a young girl on the cover. Maybe I opened this book because it was short. Usually, these books were too long for me. I found it on the shelf in my room that belonged to my parents' old books. It was a yellowing Hebrew translation of Tarjei Vesaas' Norwegian novel The Ice Palace. When I was 11, I found a book that did not know it was a book. Shani Boianjiu is the author of The People of Forever Are Not Afraid. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title The Ice Palace Author Tarjei Vesaas and Elizabeth Rokkan ![]()
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