Anne de Marcken – It Lasts Forever and Then It's Over (2024)
I finished reading this book more than a week ago and it keeps running loops inside my mind, its eyes glazed over, its arms outstretched before it.
June 2025 • Fiction
All the way through its 132 pages I could very much feel this novel in my chest, which is a fascinating sensation given the fact that the heroine of the book is an unnamed, undead narrator traversing a post-apocalyptic landscape with a muttering crow stored away inside her chest.
The book begins like so:
“I lost my left arm today. It came off clean at the shoulder.”
And, before she traverses that post-apocalyptic landscape with that crow in her chest, she is holed up in a hotel for the undead (all of whom have forgotten their names and who they were, and are saying different names out loud to figure out which one might be theirs).
By now, I think we've established that this is not your typical zombie novel (or so I've been told, as I don't usually read zombie novels).
She is grieving her lover. She cannot remember their name, but she has memories of their time spent together.
I think about how we used to take a blanket into the dunes and wrap up together. Wake with sand in our hair and in the corners of our eyes. Sound of the ocean big as the sky. I miss sleep. I miss you.
And so she traverses out west, towards the ocean, perhaps trying to find the lover she grieves, traveling through uninhabited residential areas, houses and gardens, all the while blurring the lines between what is real and what is imagined.
I finished reading this book more than a week ago and it keeps running loops inside my mind, its eyes glazed over, its arms outstretched before it. The more I've thought about how I'd recommend it, the less I've found myself wanting to say about it.
It captures the feeling of grief, interspersed with fond memories, blanketed by the darkest of humour. It is sad and pensive and melancholy and then there's Mitchem, who preaches, and broke off his penis, and says “it is important to do small, ordinary tasks when you’re depressed”.
He picked up the arm from where it was lying on the floor and held it out like something I needed to account for. He said, “You’ve experienced a significant loss.” He said, “It isn’t just your arm.” He said, “You’re grieving your life.” Since he broke off his penis he’s Mr. Wisdom.
It Lasts Forever and Then It's Over is a hypnotic read, and I already want to re-read it. I recommend you seek it out, but—if you're unsure—you can read an excerpt on Lithub before you do.
Thank you to Nena, Arjanne and Mirthe for gifting me this book.
It Lasts Forever and Then It's Over by Anne de Marcken
Published by Fitzcarraldo Editions in 2024
One book recommendation, once per month.
Book #28 • June 2025
