TE17 Mysterious Montenegro

Catherine the Great and the Small (novel excerpt) by Olja Knežević Translated fromMontenegrin by Ellen Elias-Bursac and Paula Gordon PROLOGUE We have proclaimed this small room an office. English people call a room of this size a broom closet. The English people, my husband and I maintain, are spoiled, even poor English people. That’s our attitude all year long right up to Christmas, when the bittercold sets in. Thenwemarvel at themrunning around town in the howling wind, going about their business as usual, bald men without hats, women wearing ballet flats without socks, everyone sleeveless, and again we remember where we’ve come from: a small Mediterranean countrywhere as soon as the north wind blows, no one goes outside, where everyone skips out of work early—noon at the latest—with the excuse of attending funerals and paying condolence visits. My husband says we should build a new life out of the contradictionsofourpersonaloriginsandmindsets.Weshouldn’t be do-nothings or cry-babies. I agree, even though I have begun to hold plates as if they were butterfly wings, pinched between my thumb and two fingers. Every weekend, at least one slips from my fingertips, numb from poor circulation, and shatters. Most often a dinner plate. Weekends are an accumulation of 51 I am Catherine the Great, holed up in a small room. The small room has become a workroom.