From Self-Portrait with Russian Piano, a novel, which will be published this month by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Translated from the German.

You ask me whether I still keep up with my piano playing. I’ll tell you, I don’t, not anymore, not for many years now, and it’s not just the piano I’ve stopped keeping up with. Life isn’t easy. My hands are bored, my heart’s worn out, to say nothing about how my legs feel. When I go to the kitchen to make myself some coffee, I forget that I’ve gone to the kitchen to make myself some…