Die Kunst, sich zu verlieren

Stories of disappearance, of losing oneself, of wandering off, and of rediscovery. Comfort and guidance for a freer life. Rebecca Solnit tells the tale of the Spanish conquistador Cabeza de Vaca, who gets lost on the American continent only to find himself as a different person in a new skin. She writes about the life of her great-grandmother, who first gets lost between Russian, Polish, and Yiddish, and then on her journey from Eastern Europe to the American West Coast. She shares her own story and that of her world. It is always about abandonment and devotion, about stories as pathways, about embarking on unknown routes. She gently lures us into wandering. As in "Wanderlust," her cultural history of walking, the author also demonstrates in "The Art of Losing Oneself" her crystal-clear observational skills, awakening our willingness to pursue random and surprising discoveries. Like no one else, she understands how to narrate life stories as what they are: a collection of personal, lived, dreamed, found, and invented tales that Rebecca Solnit, like a gold digger, treasures and shares with us.