LONGLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZEWhat if one half of a pair of twins no longer
wants to live? What if the other can't live without them?This question lies at the heart of
Jente Posthuma's deceptively simple What I'd Rather Not Think About. The narrator is a twin
whose brother has recently taken his own life. She looks back on their childhood and tells of
their adult lives: how her brother tried to find happiness but lost himself in various men and
the Bhagwan movement though never completely. In brief precise vignettes full of gentle
melancholy and surprising humour Posthuma tells the story of a depressive brother viewed from
the perspective of the sister who both loves and resents her twin struggles to understand him
and misses him terribly.
