Living Like Candice

“Candice is facing death—an existential confrontation with the finality of death that drove Wolfgang Herrndorf to write the cult novel Tschick in a short time after being diagnosed with a brain tumor, before ending his life on his own terms. Regardless of which path a person in such a situation chooses, the value of every second weighs heavily. Coming to terms with mortality, in the form of Candice, is especially vital for Friedemann, himself the son of a suicide victim. But with suicides in the family, there are often major difficulties. Repression, silence, and the desire to escape the pain of loss threaten to consume Friedemann, blocking his perspective of the value of the last moments together that remain for him and Candice. Their moving story is not meant to provide ready answers but to inspire intimate questions about loss, vulnerability, and mortality—and about what makes our lives truly worth living.”

Dirk Rosenlöcher