A masterwork of control and characterization, Kjersti Skomsvold’s novel captures what it means to face one’s own legacy. Mathea Martinsen has lived so quietly that the most she thinks of human connection is that “someone might notice me on the way to the store.” But when she sees that the obituaries feature people younger than she is, Mathea realizes that her own time will soon end. So, she strikes out into the world that she’d left behind. She buries a time capsule with only one item. She calls the phone company and asks for her own number, hoping she’ll be remembered by operators as someone who set “the all-time record for requests.” She even steals jam from the grocer. All along, her memories merge with the present: she finds her late husband everywhere and nowhere, and her thoughts return to a dog she lost long ago. Mathea radiates humor and light, and by the time she understands what she’ll leave behind and how, she’s already left an unforgettable mark on the reader.
