A Sleep and a Forgetting

This book by William Dean Howells is rather tricky to describe. First of all it's a novella - too short to be a novel, too long to be a short story -, and second of all it was written more than a hundred years ago. I guess the format never quite caught on, but I kind of like the length. I mean, why not. And in my opinion this one is really worth reading. It tells the story of a psychologist guy who meets a girl who suffers from a memory loss after witnessing the death of her mother. It describes an analytical investigation and even though its language differs a lot from today's writing, I find it surprisingly readable. What's interesting is, that Howells had lost an adult daughter (from what appears to have been anorexia) shortly before he wrote this piece. It's a really sad story, but nevertheless a nice read.