We and Me

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Saskia de Coster. We and Me

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A DEVASTATING PICTURE OF A DYSFUNCTIONAL BOURGEOIS FAMILY

From atop their opulent private mountain estate, We and Me follows the aristocratic Vandersandens from 1980 to 2013, for whom neuroses, claustrophobia, scandal and rebellion run rife. At the heart of the family is Sarah, whose coming of age is both daringly and sensitively explored in de Coster’s skillful prose. In this spellbinding novel, which has been compared to the work of Franzen, Eggers and Eugenides, Saskia de Coster provides a uniquely European take on the Great American Novel. With the family unit and some of life’s most pressing questions at its center, the award-winning We and Me paints a poignant picture of modern-day family life.

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In the kitchen, juice is streaming from the pitting machine. The pits tap against the covered marble tiles like hailstones. The three of them are hard at work, as if together they had formed the conveyor belt of a perfect little family: Mieke washes and selects the cherries, Uncle Jempy runs them through the machine, and Sarah, down on her knees, gathers up the pits that fall beside it. The cherries leave red splashes of blood on the kitchen cabinets, which Sarah must wipe off immediately with a damp cloth. Sarah wheedles her uncle into telling them tall tales. She wants to know what kinds of crimes the other prisoners were in for.

‘Sarah, give your uncle some peace and quiet.’

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