Smakebit på søndag - Tell the Wolves I'm Home

Bild lånad från bokus

Dags för veckans smakprov. Fler finns att utforska på bloggen Flykten fra virkeligheten.

Jag läser Tell the Wolves I'm Home av Carol Rifka Brunt och boken startar med att huvudpersonen June, hennes storasyster Greta och deras mamma är på väg till morbror Finn som är döende i aids. Morbror Finn är den person som 14-åriga, ganska ensamma, June står närmast och är den som hon kan berätta allt för. Smakprovet kommer från s. 5.

In the van, Greta waved the mistletoe around in the air, brushing it right up into my face.
     "You wait June," she said. "I'll hold this over you and Uncle Finn and then what'll you do?" She smiled at me, waiting.
     I knew what she was thinking. I'd have to be unkind to Finn or risk catching AIDS, and she wanted to watch me decide. Greta knew the kind of friend Finn was to me. She knew that he took me to art galleries, that he taught me how to soften my drawings of faces just by rubbing a finger along the pencil lines. She knew that she wasn't part of any of that.
     I shrugged. "He'll only kiss my cheek."
     But even as I said it, I thought of how Finn's lips were always chapped to shreds now. How sometimes there would be little cracks where they'd started to bleed.
     Greta leaned in, resting her arms on the back of her seat.
     "Yeah, but how do you know that the germs from a kiss can't seep in through the skin of your cheek? How can you be sure they can't somehow swim into your blood right through your open pors?"
     I didn't know. And I didn't want to die. I didn't want to turn grey.
     I shrugged again. Greta turned around in her seat, but even from behind I could tell she was smiling.

Här finns tankarna efter att ha läst hela boken.