2024 International Booker winner Jenny Erpenbeck takes us into the mind of a dreamy child in this excerpt from her novel The Book of Words.

The death was expected. The only one to be taken by surprise was Ibrahim Nassar.

Today you must pray to God, for today a nuclear war will probably break out.

Energy and resourcefulness. These virtues have excited me lately, sending me into a pathological rapture, duping me into rashness and loss of self-respect

Through the window I saw him throw the bundle onto the fire and stand over it until it caught light.

Public square. Guard in love with Magnolia (secretly, even to himself).

Herzl Haliwa lets out a scream and jerks his head from the pillow in alarm.

Where does Mrs. Simona go at night? Where are her feet taking her?

When I grow old, in however many three-month intervals, I'll gain more and more disabilities, cognitive and otherwise.

Naturally, he didn't say a word to his troops about the stupidity of their superior officers.

A young man, an eternal invalid, loved a girl, but she was merely fond of him.

It would be madness to delude himself into believing that Maria and the boy were still alive.

More than the snow he had to tramp through during the day, it was the cold of the night that made that time hard for him.

Perhaps it is merely a clever joke, but it has become a story, everybody's story.

He discovered suddenly that Gaza had a sea—a big sea too.

Other rumors might have circulated widely in earlier periods, but without a doubt these new ones should have produced the greatest effect.

Like a goat, Lieutenant, like a tulip. I smell like whatever you want me to, Sir.

I picked up my cigarettes and went for a walk through the ruts toward Świnoujście

Mordechai is a simple person, like tens of thousands of others in Tel Aviv (though he would insist that there are few like him there).

“Her narrative voice resonates with the inner geographies of the Palestinian space.”—Anton Shammas

According to legend, those strange rocks had been brought by sea from distant countries where silk was sold.

Radio held up his three losing cards. There was no need to show the other two as well.

The most casual observation would seem to suggest, beyond a doubt, that the basilisk species is on its way to extinction.

I am not complete in the mind, said the sentence I highlighted with the yellow marker and even copied into my personal notebook...

It was a terrible dream.

Today I had surgery on my ear and telephone.

Yalo didn't understand what was happening.

We're dead if we can't sell the houses, not to mention that we'd look like complete losers.

Art is forbidden. It calls for immorality and degradation.

It's one of the Cuban Revolution's best kept secrets and perhaps now it would appear petty

These essays don't even deserve a zero.

The holiday isolated the four friends, who had been thrown together, more than any ordinary day.

I'm content. I will be killed for love.

The Monteroni family could tell exactly how Marcelo felt by the music he selected.

Rogelio arrived in Paris at dawn. He was in a car accompanied by three girls; two were in charge of the wheel.

It's more of a talent, one that you're born with, not something you can learn.

He imagined the cork's possible pain as if it were live flesh he was penetrating with his implacable metal corkscrew.

Every few seconds, magnesium flashes lit up a wretched room filled with the odor of sweat-rotted shoes and bone glue.

You'll do what I say, and that's it! Understand?

Well, speed up, goddamn it! he said, while he looked at the roadway very excitedly and in a panic, can't you see that the commissioner is waiting for me?

I could feel myself slowly receding. I felt the blackout rising in me like a hiccup. Just the one.

You even feel the kick in your lungs, and you see the smoke spreading over your papers, your books, your cup of coffee

We have no choice but to obey.

A man with a position like Harry's in my business is either loyal or dead.

The tribes attributed to him provocative verses that denigrated the status of camels and extolled donkeys by contrast.

While picking the mint I got the hiccups. I am sure you were talking about me.

The dog was a hideous sight, putrid, offensive, with gouged-out eyes.

It was the first psalter he had held between his hands, possibly the only one that existed in Ireland. He hears the sea crash below with all its might. He loses himself in the text.

In the month of May Suibhne took up arms against this neighboring king. The reason mattered little.

In the quiet of my room, I tackle the problem again, in vain; all I find is the line of my inauthenticity as a sin.

The old lady taps me on the shoulder. Dear Lady, I'd give my life for you. I'm late. I'm afraid I'll be left behind.

He was apt to score unbelievable goals whenever he could keep his balance on the field, something that didn't always happen: occasionally he fell over while fighting for the ball and couldn't get back up again because he was too drunk.

Then, without ever knowing why, trees raise their naked arms to the King of the Sky.

The astronomer had been promised immortal glory if he could complete this assignment.

I will never forget how Sebastián was dressed one morning, the first time he told us about the Water Cathedral.

Heaven rains down bread in little hard crumbs of dough, and whoever catches them may either become happy or choke on them.

The eyes of the Roma know exactly when the earth's heart begins to stir deep down at spring's root, reviving the shoots of grass and the buds of trees until the green sap bursts with love before the Sun's eyes.

But his canvases were irresistible, hypnotic, and no sooner did his greatest critics lay eyes on them than they rushed to have their own portraits executed by that magical hand.

I found a white bean: where did I plant it?