This is another story that has never left my mind since reading. A young boy disappears from his home after football, subsequently spotted around his small German town, only to entice other children to disappear into the forest with him. The generosity of space in this story is where its power lies. It’s silent to the point of airlessness, which in turn cranks up the reader’s sense of dread. I’m currently reading Yoko Ogawa’s genius novel The Memory Police, whose voicelessness gives a similar feeling.

First published in English in The Paris Review 191, Winter 2009 and available to read online here