CUSTOMER: Hi, I just wanted to ask: did Anne Frank ever write a sequel? BOOKSELLER: ........ CUSTOMER: I really enjoyed her first book. BOOKSELLER: Her diary? CUSTOMER: Yes, the diary. BOOKSELLER: Her diary wasn't fictional. CUSTOMER: Really? BOOKSELLER: Yes... She really dies at the end - that's why the diary finishes. She was taken to a concentration camp. CUSTOMER: Oh... that's terrible. BOOKSELLER: Yes, it was awful - CUSTOMER: I mean, ..
Although I was always a keen library user, buying books was a different order of bliss, because I would get to live with these ones. (A Chat with Emma Donoghue)
They are a brilliant device for shape-shifting as we can slip into the skin of authors from other times, other cultural backgrounds, brilliant minds who give us a new perspective on life and the world - something we all need from time to time. - Cornelia Funke