What I'd Rather Not Think About: Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2024

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2024 INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE

What happens when the person you’ve built your entire life on is suddenly gone?

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 humor, 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.

Jente Posthuma debuted in 2016 with People With No Charisma, which was published to critical acclaim. Her second novel, What I'd Rather Not Think About (2020) was shortlisted for the European Union Prize for Literature. The English-language translation by Sarah Timmer Harvey was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2024. The translation rights of What I'd Rather Not Think About have been sold to more than fifteen countries. Posthuma's third book Witch! Witch! Witch! (2023) is an idiosyncratic and witty retelling of three ancient Dutch sagas. Posthuma is currently working on a memoir.
Sarah Timmer Harvey is a translator and writer currently based in Woodstock, New York. She holds an MFA from Columbia University in New York and a BA from Southern Cross University. Reconstruction, their translation of stories written by the Dutch-Surinamese writer Karin Amatmoekrim was published in 2020, and their translation of Thistle by Nadia de Vries was published in 2024. Sarah's translations of Dutch-language poetry and prose have appeared in Modern Poetry in Translation, Asymptote, The Los Angeles Review, and elsewhere. Born in Australia, she lived and worked in the Netherlands for 14 years before moving to New York City in 2013.

ISBN: 9781957363356
Format: Paperback
Pages: 224
Publisher: Scribe Publications
Published: July 14, 2023

“A unique story of a twin brother and sister, wryly funny and heartbreakingly sad. Her characters desperately try to make sense of our ever more complex world. This is a rare book. And Jente Posthuma is a treasure and a hell of a writer.”

—Herman Koch, international bestselling author of The Dinner“From the opening pages of this novel I had no idea where it was going, but I trusted Posthuma completely. Tender, offbeat. and deftly drawn—I loved it.”

—Allee Richards, author of The Small Joys of Real Life“Dutch novelist Posthuma returns with a sharp meditation on grief … The patchworked story of the twins’ bond and the brother’s fruitless search for meaning is woven with reflections … inventive and worthy.”

—Publishers Weekly“What I’d Rather Not Think About is a forthright novel in which mental health, sexual orientation, and suicide are subjects of frank, empathetic consideration.”

—Foreword Reviews“Through a delicately woven tale of memory, shared selfhood, and grief, the author takes us into the mind that struggles to understand a world shattered by loss, when one sibling dies and another is left to reconstitute the fragments. Poetic and surprising, Posthuma shows how even in the most intimate of connections, in another person lies the great unknown … Posthuma develops an affecting novel about grief by embracing its full complexity.”