A novel character who calls himself a ‘hypersensitive being’ has to deal with an insensitive world in Minke Douwesz’s new novel The last spring. While cycling and thinking through Germany, Poland and (pre-war) Ukraine, she tries to dissect the confrontation.
Ese, the protagonist of Minke Douwesz’s third novel The last spring, is the prototype of someone who lives consciously. She has thought regarding everything she does whether it is climate and environmentally friendly. She does not without humor call herself an ‘eco-Stalinist’. That is someone who no longer believes that people will do something regarding climate change of their own free will. The knot will be needed for that.
She is also someone who, through Minke Douwesz’s pen, doesn’t beat around the bush when she talks regarding herself: she considers herself ‘a hypersensitive being’ who is ‘excessively’ worried regarding the major world problems, the loss of the forests, the ongoing manure fraud, the sea level rise. And especially the pride of people who think they can dispose of the world as they see fit: ‘Seeing a beautiful tree, a wooden garden gate, a robin, offered joy. But underneath, she was filled with a sense of futility.’
Die…
