Everything Counts

English sample translation by Jamie Searle Romanelli available
#7 of the SWR list of best books December 2015

In her adopted home of New York, in the middle of summer in Harlem, the diagnosis hits her with full force: lung cancer, and after two supposedly successful cancer treatments. Everything starts all over again: the hospital, the operation, the blessing and curse of morphine. Some welcome time-out turns into a battle for healing and composure. She faces the life-threatening situation alone, lets her thoughts wander and reflects on the things that mean the most to her: the freedom of art, literature, films and the memory of her mother.

Verena Lueken tells the story of a fascinating woman who finds an abyss opening up in front of her – and who gazes into it undaunted and takes a decisive leap.

A magnificent novel about life and literature, sickness and hope written in a sensitive, clear and laconic style.

‘’She thought about how, in the course of her life, she had heard, read and forgotten again many millions of sentences which might perhaps be useful now, and how some of them lingered unsorted in her memory and then unexpectedly rose back into her consciousness.’’