Review: Atmospheric Disturbances by Rivka Galchen
Atmospheric Disturbances by Rivka Galchen (2008)
Fiction, 256 pages
First Picador Edition, May 2009
Published by Picador
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“Last December a woman entered my apartment who looked exactly like my wife.”
So starts the story of Dr. Leo Liebenstein and his search for his “real” wife Rema. However, it’s not that easy. As the reader comes to discover, reality is in the eye of the beholder. Is Rema really an imposter? Or is Leo having a crisis such that he can no longer recognize what he once took for granted? That what he has known all along is no longer the same. People change. But in his eyes, she is so different, she has to be another person altogether.