Das Imaginäre Leben

Natalia Ginzburg's thoughts are astonishingly relevant; they seem to resonate perfectly with our present time. It is primarily the experience that there are fewer and fewer things we can be certain about.

Why it is so difficult to distinguish between victim and oppressor. Why we feel proud of the city we have chosen to live in, even though it is loud and overcrowded. That thinking politically and expressing political views always means pursuing a specific intention. That the flaws of upbringing remain etched in our minds like tattoos and that we spend our adult lives trying to erase them. That it is harder to grow old today than it was in the past. That our instincts urge us to take a stand, but the only choice left to us is to side with those who suffer or die unjustly. Why it is wrong to find reasons for pride in our own origins. And why we should not think of our own freedom, but rather of that of others.