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By Judith Hermann, Margot Bettauer Dembo Alice , the German writer Judith Hermann’s 2009 short-story collection, was short-listed for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. When someone very close to you dies, your whole life changes. Everything is different. Alice is the central figure in these five interconnected narratives, which tell of her life at times of loss. Suddenly it is no longer possible to say what the person looked like, how he spoke, cursed, smiled, how he lived his life. Objects are left behind, books, letters, pictures, and every now and again you think you can see them in a crowd. Judith Hermann tells of days of transition, of waiting, of holding on and letting go and of how clear and dazzling such days can sometimes be. Alice is a book of extraordinary power and great literary beauty from one of Europe’s finest writers.