Farewells have many faces. We say goodbye to the dead – to parents, siblings, and beloved partners. We say goodbye to friends, acquaintances, and colleagues. Does it help to be present at someone's dying? We know we have to say goodbye to a loved one. But this awareness alone is not a farewell. Only time can arrange a farewell. The Colors of Farewell consists of nine stories whose themes are significant events or moments in relationships that originate in the past but only surface after years. Only then does a farewell occur, either directly with the person in question or with our own mistaken perception of them… Sometimes farewells deeply affect us. And sometimes they liberate us. The new collection of stories by Bernhard Schlink is a masterpiece: it poses fundamental questions and does not hesitate to answer them.
