Jakob ASleep

” Dust drifts in through the edge of the window. Behind me stands the cross, its base weathered and worn; above it rises a narrow copper dome, dulled by a thin layer of verdigris. It was before the eight letters burned into the wooden beam that I learned to read. My older brother died at birth. He was meant to be named Jakob. But the baptism never took place, and his parents, with a stubbornness tinged by some obscure bitterness, clung to the state of “namelessness” that the authorities had imposed upon their firstborn. With my father’s hand, my mother’s hand, and between the black winter coats of my grandparents, I kept sounding out, over and over, the strange name given to my brother: Renz Child. Then, little by little, the adults’ weeping at the grave began to fade, just as their visits to the cemetery grew less frequent with the passing of time. ”

*****************************************

Klaus Merz:

Swiss writer and poet, widely regarded as one of the leading contemporary voices in German-language literature. Born in 1945, he is celebrated for his concise, poetic prose and his remarkable ability to capture profound human experience with striking economy of language. His work spans poetry, novels, and short fiction, and has been translated into numerous languages. Merz has received some of Switzerland’s most prestigious literary honors, including the Swiss Grand Award for Literature, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to contemporary literature. Jakob Sleeps is among his most acclaimed and celebrated works.