On the Other Side Is March

A middle-aged woman adjusts to being a grandmother and caretaker for her own mother in the wake of her father’s death, in the poignant English-language debut from Michelsen. Reflecting on the “subconscious sense of completion” she feels as a grandmother, the narrator also notices a “fleeting thought of nascent dismantling. Like with scaffolding when a building is finished.” She dotes on her grandson and spends considerable time supporting her elderly mother, whose mind and body are progressively deteriorating. The novel unfolds primarily as a series of vivid images that contain the narrator’s wistful memories and recognition of the passage of time, as when she observes the beauty of a worn staircase (“Life has cascaded down the steps and moulded its current form”). The narrator tries to cherish her remaining moments with her mother, but she senses that “the past is ready to pounce” with less sunny memories, and attempts to steel herself (“Just pretend! Just do what all women have done through the ages! Pretend!”). As her mother’s dementia progresses, she realizes that she has become the “mother to my mother.” There is a lovely economy to Michelsen’s writing, which allows the lyrical impressions to resonate. It’s a spare yet powerful meditation on mortality. (June)