Short Letter, Long Farewell

The novella “A Short Letter for a Long Goodbye” is written in the first person. We never learn the narrator’s name. There aren’t many external events in the story. It presents a free chronicle of several days marked for the hero by the most severe spiritual crisis. A young writer from Austria—he came to America driven by an unbearable sense of hopelessness. The reason is a months-long conflict with his wife, which turned into desperate, scorching hatred between people who are closest to each other.