Die sanfte Gleichgültigkeit der Welt

A novella about life and storytelling and retelling one's life while also encountering one's own past. It's very meta and decently done, but lacks a playfulness, and ultimately leaves one pretty unaffected. I was still curious about where it all goes, how all the branching would finally merge. But I also had a slight antipathy towards the audiobook narrator's voice, which progressively then extended onto the book's main protagonist as well. The narrator never fully becomes a person, let alone a person to root for. But it was short!

At some point in the story the younger Lena asks him why he'd want to mess with the story, make his alter ego follow his path to the same miserable outcome, and that just felt like a great summary of my sentiments towards the character and the story at that point.