flights excerpt II

Ruth

"After his wife died, he made a list of all the places that had the same name as her: Ruth.

He found quite a few of them, not only towns, but also streams, little settlements, hills – even an island. He said he was doing it for her sake, and besides, it gave him strength to see that in some indefinable way she still existed in the world, even if only in name. And that furthermore, whenever he would stand at the foot of a hill called Ruth, he would get the sense she hadn’t died at all, that she was right there, just differently.

Her life insurance was able to cover the costs of his travels."

  - Olga Tokarczuk, Flights