Five Selves

Five powerful stories exploring identity and selfhood. With haunting, Kafkaesque prose, Emanuela Barasch-Rubinstein creates a series of profound, internal narratives. THE STORIES: A Bird Flight: After the death of her father the narrator travels to an academic symposium in Chicago; her host seems fixated on her bereavement as he tries to reach understanding of his own recent loss through her experience. Earrings: The narrator’s choice of earrings becomes symbolic of her desire to establish her own identity separate from the clashing ways of her mother, born in Israel, and her grandmother who emigrated from Europe. The Grammar Teacher: A teacher who believes in the right and proper way to behave and teach, and who achieves the highest standards from her classes, finds everything she believes in challenged by a new, modern teacher. Watch Dog: The consequences of an irrational fear of dogs for a young man seeking to make his way in the world. Aura: A man lies in a hospital bed and experiences an internal world disconnected from his old life.