R doesn’t trust my book recommendations because she assumes they would be too dark.

She is right (the last time she trusted me, I had her read Stefan Zweig! ).

Maybe I could convince her to read Ulitskaya’s *The Big Green Tent* – it has just recently been translated, and the e-book is available at the library. It’s about how people find ways to stay human in the most bizarre of times. Not depressing.