Ilona Hartmann: Junk

READING

“Ilona Hartmann is probably Germany’s coolest writer. And she’s invented a new literary genre: Happysad.” Dirk von Lowtzow, Tocotronic

She has seven days. Seven days between a troubling diagnosis and the follow-up doctor’s appointment that could change everything. Seven days to stop thinking—or to finally clean up. Instead of going on vacation or seeking distractions, she descends into her basement storage space, equipped with a headlamp, granola bars, and the firm resolve to part with everything she no longer needs and let go of whatever is better off without her.
But amid moving boxes and memory boxes, XXL stuffed teddy bears, and 20-year-old toothbrushes, an unexpected expedition begins: through chaos and order, consumption and identity, through the history of her belongings and a meditation on junk. Accompanied by her minimalist sister, a pragmatic secondhand dealer, and the mythical creatures rustling in the basement, she realizes: Throwing things away is letting go with no way back.

A novel about a young woman who cleans out her basement and, in the process, discovers what really matters in life.