Running by Isabel Bogdan

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Translated from the German by Luise von Flotow

A woman is running for her life. She’s running away from her life, toward a new life. The trauma she is facing is slowly unveiled as she runs, as she mulls over what happened, examines her feelings, bursts out in anger and pain, but also describes her world as she jogs through it, and learns how she can and must return to a new place in life. Panting, cursing, in pain and anger, and finally full of energy and courage, she relives the event, the depression that caused it, her implication in his illness, her sadness at the end of their dreams. Fleeing cliches and well-meant platitudes, she returns to her musical life, her friend Kati, buys a cheerful red dress and keeps running on…