A review by tanemariacris
The Land of Green Plums by Herta Müller

We laughed a lot, to hide it from each other. But fear always finds an out. If you control your face, it slips into your voice. If you manage to keep a grip on your face and your voice, as if they were dead wood, it will slip out through your fingers. It will pass through your skin and lie there. You can see it lying around on objects close by.

A work of poetic sensibility that captures the disruptive effects of fear in a world marked by constant surveillance. The themes are impactfully conveyed through the employment of a paratactic, often allegorical writing style leaving gaps in the narrative structure in a similar manner to how trauma decomposes the cohesion and flow of memories and also creating a sense of perpetual tension and dread.